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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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Chap. Copyright No. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS 

AS SHOWN BY FULFILLED PROPHECIES ANDTHE 
"SIGNS OF THE TIMES." 



-BY- 



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THOMAS H. NELSON, 

Evangelist. 



AUTHOR OJP "JCJ.F.B AND LABORS OJP REV. 
VIVIAN A. DAKE." 



Introduction by Jos. S. Jenckes, D.D., L.L.D. 



"Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh^—Jas. *, 8, 

sr^-^s^ (APR 1 189RJ 

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Pentecost Band Publishing Company, 

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. 
Copyrighted 18%, by the Author, 



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Chapter I. — Arguments. A Cluster ot Reasons. 

Chapter II. — A Number of Fulfilled Predictions. 

Chapter III. — Material Signs and Distress of 
Nations. 

Chapter IV. — The Subject of Chapter III Con- 
tinued. 

Chapter V. — The Same Continued. 

Chapter VI. — Modern Babel Tower. 

Chapter VII. — Daniel's Visions. 

Chapter VIII. — Daniel Continued. 

Chapter IX. — The Same Continued. 

Chapter X. — The Same Concluded. 

Chapter XL — Conclusion. 



PREFACE. 



I 1 FTER much prayerful research and study 
fof the subject herein treated, we bestow 
! %%i>\^the result of our investigations upon the 
public without apology, as every truth recorded 
is substantiated by proof. With a conviction, 
born of fervent desire for the salvation of souls, 
that many may be awakened to see their danger 
and their duty, and by yielding to the divine 
claims, escape the wrath to come, these pages 
are written. The author has held rigidly to what 
he deemed to be the divine meaning of every text 
discussed, regardless of popular theories and 
fearless of ecclesiastical criticism. He regards 
the book as providential and timely, and well 
calculated to awaken and instruct the careless 
and unenlightened masses. 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 

I have read with great care, and much satisfac- 
tion, a volume of about a hundred and seventy 
pages, by the Rev. Thomas H. Nelson, Superin- 
tendent of Pentecost Bands. 

This publication seems opportune, in the light 
of current events in the political and religious 
world. Indeed, to the thoughtful observer of the 
times, and the careful reader of the Bible, and of 
history, it seems impossible that the strained con- 
dition of affairs in the kingdoms of the old world, 
can hold out much longer without a crisis, or cat- 
aclysm, that shall shake the very earth to her 
foundations. 

"Let God be true and every man a liar." Un- 
less the Scriptures are a tissue of misrepresenta- 
tions, and unless the philosophy of history is a 
"delusion and a snare," our mundane affairs are 
inevitably nearing a point where a novus ordo 
sector um must ensue. And of the nature of the 
new order, no one need be in doubt who will use 
the faculties with which God has endowed him, 
and the sources of information that are now 
within the reach of every honest and earnest in- 
vestigator of the truth. 



11. 

A prominent minister of this city said to me 
lately, that all the theological students at a lead- 
ing* seminary of learning, who candidly and with- 
out prejudice, investigated the subject of the 
second advent of our Lord to the earth, reached 
the same conclusion — namely, that He will, and 
must come, before the millennium, and not at its 
close. 

Now, if this be really so, the conclusion is irre- 
sistible, that the whole trend of the religious teach- 
ing and preaching of our times is radically wrong, 
and misdirected. Before the union of church and 
state, under Constantine, religion consisted in sub- 
jective, personal experiences, and the "answer 
of a good conscience toward God." But after the 
iniquitous marriage between them was arranged 
and carried out, mankind lost sight of the close 
affiliation with their risen and ascended Lord, and 
prided themselves upon the triumphs of Christian- 
ity over all opposing, visible forces, and fondly 
trusted that the church had captured the world, 
when the result clearly proved that the world 
had conquered the church. So, the intimate per- 
sonal relation of the soul to its Saviour, was 
quite lost sight of in the pomp and glamour of a 
gorgeous, visible organization, which arrogantly 
claimed, with all the worldly reinforcements of 
the old Roman empire, that she was in very deed, 
the ' 'Bride of Christ. " 

It at once became the fashion of the new regime 
to assert that the whole world must be converted 
to Christ; that the great mass of humanity must 



111. 

be lifted up to the highest moral and spiritual 
levels, and held thus, through human agencies 
and power; and, that then, after a millennium of 
fruition, at such sublimated heights, the Lord 
should come and judge all men, both the "just 
and the unjust," and handing the kingdoms of 
the world over to the Father, that God should 
"be all in all." This is a sad, if not a wicked, per- 
version of the truths of Revelation. 

At the first council, held in Jerusalem, the 
Apostle James announced, "Brethren, Simon hath 
declared how that God, at the beginning, did take 
out of the Gentiles, a people for His name.' 9 So, 
this is what He is doing; or, having done, during 
the present dispensation, in which we are living, 
and not attempting, nor designing, to convert the 
whole world. This He will arrange for, after 
our Christian dispensation, and one other, the 
millennial, shall have elapsed. The evangelist, 
Matthew, says explicity, that the "gospel is to 
be preached unto all nations, for a witness of Him" 
and not for the conversion of the world. And 
Paul says to Titus that Christ "gave Himself for 
us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous 
of good works." This word "peculiar" means, a 
people of His own, or for Himself. Then He is 
now, in the time between His first and His second 
advent, choosing out from among the children of 
men, a band of faithful, true and absolutely tried 
followers, who shall comprise His "Bride," or 
"Church," and who shall become His associates 



IV. 

and co-rulers in the Millennial Kingdom, which 
He is about to establish upon this earth of ours, 
which shall be much fairer than now, after its re- 
habilitation, for such a sacred use and purpose. 

Now, all of this, is the teaching of the book 
which we are reviewing, as it was, without con- 
trovers3 r , the teaching of the early church of the 
first two centuries of the Christian era. I would 
hesitate to say the first three centuries, for cor- 
ruptions of doctrine, and errors in practice, had 
insinuated themselves into the very warp and 
woof of the Christian church very soon after the 
Apostles' days, and had dimmed the spiritual 
vision of the early Christians touching this car- 
dinal doctrine of Christ's personal, visible, ma- 
terial, pre-millinnial coming to our earth, for a 
glorious reign, in righteousness, of one thousand 
years; and this, before the final consummation of 
all things, when He shall deliver His kingdom to 
the Father, and "God shall be all in all." 

May the divine blessing accompany this little 
book, with its precious freight of genuine Christ- 
ian teaching, into many, many burdened hearts, 
and inspire with new hope many weary lives, 
with its able and conscientious showing forth of 
the true wisdom, that "cometh down from above, 
even from the Father of lights, with whom there 
is is no variableness neither shadow of turning." 
Amen! 

Joseph S. Jenckes, D.D., L.L.D. 

Indianapolis, Indiana, March 10, 1896. 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY, 



CHAPTER I. 



It is a fact that few men, principles or tenets 
merit the honor they receive, and fewer still re- 
ceive the honor which they merit, and the study 
of the prophetic portions of the divine word is no 
exceptional case. The more we examine the word 
of God and compare its prophetic predictions 
with the facts of history the more we are im- 
pressed with the nearness of the end of this dis- 
pensation and the return of our Lord. This is a 
much neglected subject, but one on which it is 
blessed to reflect. ' 'Blessed is he that readeth 
and they that hear the words of this prophecy." 
It is a subject which has been greatly abused, 
and one from which has sprung the most ridicu- 
lous speculations and the wildest fanaticism. But 
shall we utterly ignore it? No, not while God 
holds it up as a subject of comfort to His people, 
and while Jesus and His disciples and Moses and 
the prophets saw fit to devote whole chapters to 
a description of it and the signs of its approach. 
We venture to assert that fully one -half of the 



b THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

prophecies have a direct or indirect bearing upon 
this subject, also the key to many of the more am- 
biguous passages is found here. Hence the Bible 
is as a new book to those who begin to read it 
with this idea in view. In the elucidation of this 
subject we shall endeavor to confine ourselves 
largely to the word of God and the history of the 
world ; these we are convinced will never be 
found to contradict each other. We take up this 
subject with a feeling akin to that which must 
have agitated the Israelitish exile from Egypt 
when behind the Midianitish mountain the voice 
of God from the burning bush called him to put 
off his shoes, and declared that the place whereon 
he stood was holy ground. 

Prophecy is a narration of future events; his- 
tory is a narration of past events. The historian, 
infidel though he may be, nevertheless proves the 
supernatural character of the prophetic records 
by their fulfillment in his narrative of past oc- 
currences. 

For, as no human wisdom or science could by 
mathematical calculations ever have figured out 
these prophetic descriptions which the facts of his- 
tory authenticate, their divine origin as mircles of 
knowledge is proven beyond a doubt, and the very 
fact that God saw fit to write should form sufficient 
reason for us to endeavor to understand. The ex- 
act fulfillment of these prophecies and the precise 
harmony of their chronological dates are as great 
evidence of the divinity of revelation and the 
scheme of gospel redemption in these last days as 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 7 

the noted miracles of Christ and the apostles were 
to the church in her infancy. It is but reasonable 
to suppose that God would give His honest follow- 
ers in the perilous times of the last days some 
such evidence as a confirmation of their faith, 
since miracles were given for a similar purpose to 
the infant church. We wish to keep the balance 
between the two extremes on this subject and 
avoid on the one hand the error of many who 
have specified a day or hour, or even a year, 
wherein they asserted that God would judge the 
world, thereby making uninspired mortals wiser 
than our blessed Lord, who acknowledged in 
Mark xiii: 32, that He Himself did not know the 
day nor the hour; and, on the other hand, the 
equally erroneous though less disastrous error of 
totally ignoring or criminally ridiculing a great 
portion of that revealed word that the All-wise 
and All-benevolent God gave for our edification 
and comfort. Though Christ declared that no 
man knew the day nor the hour, yet He does not 
assert that we could not know anything of the 
decade or year, but rather describes occurrences 
which immediately precede the end, and adds: 
"When ye see these things come to pass, know 
that the end is nigh, even at your doors." 

It is our purpose in this manual to call atten- 
tion to these prophecies, and then examine the 
page of history and see whether or not any or all 
of them have been or are being fulfilled; being as- 
sured that if the prophecy in this verse has been 
fulfilled the promise shall not fail. I wish my 



8 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

reader to remember that there is a vast difference 
between an exposition of prophecy and the de- 
claration of essential truth. As I am a weak, fal- 
lible man not claiming to fill the office of a 
prophet, my expositions of prophecy may in some 
particulars be erroneous. 

But in declaring' the vital and essential truths 
of the gospel God has not left me to infer and 
speculate, but to declare with the boldness of an 
apostle what He has laid down in His written 
word. The best of men differ widely and agree 
to disagree in their views of prophecy. But a! 
must agree on the essentials of evangelical re 
ligion, or the dissenter must perish forever. In 
discussing prophecy I may through ignorance 
draw unwarrantable conclusions from fact or 
fancy. If my reader sees that I have done this 
let him discard my conclusions and thank God for 
greater light on that point. But if He sees my 
conclusions to be reasonable and possibly right, I 
pray that he may give due heed to them. I de- 
sire to move cautiously and prayerfully along this 
line, since God has left us no emphatic and 
unmistakable statements of the exact time of 
the end. Dogmaticism in these things is as far 
from my intention as I deem it to be from good 
sense. 

I make no claim to infallibility. We hope the 
world will never be bored with more than the one 
infallible man it has. He who burned men for as- 
serting that the world was not flat and for con- 
tradicting his assertion that the sun moved round 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 9 

a motionless earth; he who located purgatory at 
the center of the earth, 25,000 miles from the sur- 
face, has proven the imbecility of infallibility. 
But if I should so far forget myself as to posi- 
tively assert what I should only give as an opinion, 
or put more significance on certain facts than dis- 
cretion would allow, I hope that my reader will 
exercise the more charity on account of what he 
considers my weakness, and again thank God for 
his greater clearness of perception. If he con- 
sider me a fool, I say with the apostle: "Yet as 
a tool receive me." If he refuse to do this and 
deride and censure me he will in the words ot the 
proverb, be making two fools where there need be 
but one. 

We are told by modern theologians that none 
but weak minds or peculiar persons ever bother 
themselves with the zoological apparitions of 
Daniel, or the hidden revelations of John, etc., 
but we remember that God chose the weak things 
to confound the mighty, and said He would purify 
unto Himself a peculiar people, and therefore we 
take courage. The study of prophecy as relating 
to the second advent has too long been left to those 
who have perhaps unintentionally, yet neverthe- 
less truly used it as a prop to support their 
own peculiar and unscriptural views. No sub- 
ject was given more studious attention by the 
prophets, apostles and early church fathers than 
that of prophecy. That none is given less atten- 
tion by modern theologians generally is itself a 
sign of the degenerate times in which we live. 



10 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Peter, the apostle, tells us that the former "In- 
quired and searched diligently, searching what, 
or what manner of times the Spirit which was in 
them did signify, when it testified beforehand the 
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should 
follow." And if they studied so diligently the 
unfulfilled prophecies that related to the Savior 
who was coming to suffer, ought we not the more 
earnestly to study those that refer to the King 
who is coming to reign in glory forever? Well 
was it for the Christians of Jerusalem that they 
were not taught by a modern theologian, else 
they had all perished in the fearful seige of that 
city under Titus, the Roman. But being students 
of prophecy, and recognizing the fact that the 
prophetic statements of Jesus were passing into 
history before their eyes they read the interpre- 
tation, heeded the timely warning and escaped to 
Pella and the surrounding country. This historic 
fact none can deny. 

The Prophet Micah gave the name of the very 
place of Christ's birth; Zechariah told of the 
exact manner of His entry into Jerusalem; Mala- 
chi exactly describes his forerunner, John; and 
we have the most positive proof that these 
prophecies were not neglected by pious Jews. 
Noah was told the exact time when the flood 
would come; Moses, by consulting prophecy, un- 
derstood the very time when the Egyptian cap- 
tivity was to end, and consequently was prepared 
to do his part in delivering his enslaved brethren. 
These, as Peter saj^s, recognized prophecy as a 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 11 

"day star" or "morning' star," heralding" the ap- 
proach of a better day "whereunto," he says, "ye 
do well that ye take heed till the day dawn." 
This day dawn is spoken of by Malachi as the 
coming" of the Savior to reign in glory as "the 
Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings." 
But the apostle would have us "take heed" to 
these "day stars" of prophecy till they are lost 
in the glare of the "Sun of Righteousness," and 
the stars of prophecy shine out no more on the 
night of sin, but the Sun of Righteousness ushers 
in the light and glory of the Millennial day. 

The idea that human history is a haphazard 
time-and-chance affair, is true only from the hu- 
man side. From God's side it is an orderly fulfill- 
ment of a great drama that — we do not say He fore- 
ordered, but He fore-knew and fore-announced. 
This divine fore-knowledge in no sense affects the 
free will or responsibility of the actors. The 
spirit-inspired, or wise expositors of other ages 
recognized this principle and acted upon it. Dan- 
iel in reference to the deliverance of his people 
from the seventy years' Babylonish captivity said 
he "understood by books" that the time was about 
expired. Jesus Himself, when urged by His friends 
to show himself openly, declared "My time is not 
yet come," which showed that he was waiting for 
Daniel's seventy weeks of predicted time to elapse 
before His "Showing unto Israel." Paul in refer- 
ence to Christ's birth wrote, "When the fulness of 
times had come God sent forth His Son," etc., 
meaning that when the predicted time had ar- 



12 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

rived, and not till then, Jesus was born. These 
statements proved their authors to be believers 
in, and students of, chronological prophecy, which 
therefore none can ridicule or even ignore without 
offense. 

Prophecy primarily was not intended so much 
to prove by its fulfillment the divinity of revela- 
tion as it was to warn God's people of approach- 
ing catastrophies, that they might prepare for the 
mighty events it described. But this primary end 
of prophecy is defeated by the theologians who 
ignore these sacred writings, and great will be 
their loss and sufferings and those of their hear- 
ers when the final catastrophe comes and finds 
them unprepared for it. We have no wish to dog- 
matically assert anything for which we have not 
the plainest proof, and hence in these pages we 
are anxious only to compare current facts and in- 
cidents with "The sure word of prophecy," and 
leave the enlightened and unprejudiced reader to 
decide whether or not we have sufficient grounds 
for our views. 

If the apparently insignificant quiver of a frog's 
leg led to the opening of the science of electric- 
ity; the dropping of an apple to the discovery of 
the law of gravitation, or the moving of a kettle 
lid to the discovery of the power of steam, it is 
proof that God encourages the deliberative student 
by rewarding his deliberations and researches. 
This is as true in spiritual affairs and in the pray- 
erful study of God's word as in the natural world. 
In looking over the facts of history and compar- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 13 

ing them with the prophetic statements we are 
struck with their similarity, and are as much en- 
couraged by these signs to believe that we are 
nearing a terminus in human affairs and the ap- 
pearing of a new heaven and a new earth, as 
Columbus was by the appearance of strange birds 
and seaweeds to believe that he was nearing the 
long-looked for new world. We thank God that 
much more study is now given to the prophetic 
portions of His word by a few of the most spirit- 
ual in all denominations than in any former age. 

This is encouraging, though there is need of a 
greater improvement in this direction. A very 
encouraging feature of this late awakening is 
found in the fact that nearly all the spiritual 
ones agree on the main points, and all are looking 
for some important developments in the near fu- 
ture. Though there is as much difference of opin- 
ion in the interpretation of prophecy as there is 
in the realm of Christianity generally, yet we are 
thankful that much of this difference is on non- 
essential points. 

As a motive to holy living there was no point 
more often urged by the disciples than the com- 
ing of Christ, as the following passages show: 
James v: 8, "Be ye also patient, stablish your 
hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." 
I.Thess. v: 2-6, "The day of the Lord cometh as a 
thief in the night; therefore let us watch and be 
sober." I Peter iv: 7, "The end of all things is at 
hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto 
prayer." James v: 7, "Be patient therefore, 



14 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

brethren, for the coming of the Lord draweth 
nigh." Rom. xiii: 12, "The day is at hand; let ns 
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put 
on the armor of light." 

A very essential, though very neglected branch 
of Christian theology or sacred science, is that 
of chronological prophecy. This study is by the 
very nature of things to be developed in the last 
days, and could not be otherwise, for it has been 
stated in the prophecies that their contents were 
to be sealed until the time of the end: "But thou, 
O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, 
even till the time of the end." And even at that 
time they were to be understood only by a limited 
number or a particular class, as the angel con- 
tinues in the same breath: "And none of the 
wicked shall understand, but the wise (pure in 
heart) shall understand." This fact that God 
sealed the book of Daniel and its counterpart, the 
Apocalypse, till "the time of the end," and that 
even then, none but the wise could understand it, 
accounts for the confused and meaningless expo- 
sitions of this portion of God's word by the pious 
and good men of other ages, and the equally self- 
contradictory effusions of many to-day, who are 
yet unacquainted with Christ as a personal, con- 
scious Savior. The qualification for understand- 
ing this part of God's word especially is moral 
purity rather than mental polish. "The fear of 
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but as the 
time of the end is now at hand, God has with the 
sword of history cut the "seal" that has been for 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 15 

ages upon these prophecies, and the wise students 
of this portion of His word find it a pleasant and 
profitable field to explore. He has declared: "At 
evening* time it shall be light." And surely in 
this evening of time we can look for light on the 
prophetic portions of His word, nor look in vain, 
for floods of light are shining from the page of 
history on the page of prophecy. The breaking 
of the "seal" from the writings of Daniel and 
John, and the general understanding of these 
writings form a blessed proof in themselves that 
we live in the "time of the end," as well as being 
an inspiration to study and a confirmation of our 
faith in prophecy. 

We are forced to admit that we are greatly in- 
debted to the common newspapers for some of the 
following facts, but they are historic facts that 
none will deny, even though variously colored by 
the different papers. We are well aware of the 
corruption of the press, and that its independency 
is a thing of the past; that it is largely con- 
trolled by money rather than men, and that its 
editorial staff of intellectual prostitutes dare not 
tell the truth on many points, but must constantly 
vilify righteous men and sound principles, and 
extol malicious tenets and robbery schemes in or- 
der to keep the good will of the conscienceless 
Barabbases and f eelingless Shylocks, whose hired 
tools they are. These subsidizers of the press are 
aware that it creates public opinion, and sooner 
or later public opinion becomes the law of the 
land; hence the determined effort to play the 



16 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Pope on this point and keep the people in igno- 
rance, that law-breaking- law-makers may profit 
thereby. Thus the printing press which heaven 
bestowed especially upon the English speaking, 
or Protestant people, that its numberless sheets 
might go forth like "leaves from the tree of life 
for the healing of the nations," is, through its 
prostitution to money and crime, scattering broad- 
cast the death warrants of the millions. But with 
all this in view we pick up a daily newspaper and 
scan its pages with awe as we see there a record 
of facts that verifies the truth of God's word, and 
gives us data from which to calculate our where- 
abouts on the stream of time. 

We have little disposition and less time to spend 
antagonizing what we consider to be unsound 
teaching on this subject. But we fail to find an3 r 
scripture for the dogma that is becoming so pop- 
ular these days that the "world is rapidly grow- 
ing better," and that the prevailing principles and 
influences will be successful in converting it and 
bringing about the millennium. 

The more we study the word of God the more 
we are convinced that it directly antagonizes this 
view. Because sin in our day is not assuming the 
barbarous forms which characterized the dark 
ages, or heathen nations, many think the Bible is 
incorrect where it plainly declares that ' 'evil men 
and seducers shall wax worse and worse." But 
though we polish our perfidy and baptize our in- 
fidelity and refine our wickedness till sin becomes 
a science, it is sin still, and as much greater and 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 17 

more heinous in God's sight than the sin of other 
ages, as the light and knowledge of right and 
wrong in our day is greater than that which was 
enjoyed in other ages. God says: "In the last days 
perilous times shall come" for men shall be lov- 
ers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, 
unholy." Paul declares that Christ will not come 
' 'Except there be a falling ay/ay first and that 
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who 
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is 
called God." This falling away in the last days 
is to be so great that Christ himself asked the 
question: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man 
cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" It 
is written that He comes "In flaming fire, 
taking vengence on them that know not God and 
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
Peter says, not "in the last times" all shall be 
converted, but ' 'there shall come in the last days 
scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying: 
'Where is the promise of His coming?'" Again 
Jesus said: "But as the days of Noe were, so 
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, 
for as in the days that were before the flood they 
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving 
in marriage until the day that Noe entered into 
the ark, and knew not until the flood came and 
took them all away; so shall the coming of the 
Son of Man be." 

The following passage in I Timothy should be 
conclusive, as it seems to be aimed directly at 



18 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

this post-millennial heresy: "The Spirit speak- 
eth expressly that in the latter times (not that all 
shall be converted, but) some shall depart from the 
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines 
of devils." This post-millennial doctrine that 
the world is to be entirely converted to Christ by 
the present acting powers and influences, and the 
millennium to be inaugurated without the direct 
and immediate presence of Christ, was brought 
into prominence, if not into existence, less than 
two hundred years ago by a Mr. Whitby, who 
claimed that it was entirely "a new hypothesis." 
We grant that it deserves the name, as there is 
not a single passage in the New Testament which 
the champions of this doctrine can adduce which 
plainly teaches their theory. The entire fabric 
rests upon a misapprehension of some of the par- 
ables. 

Moshiem writes in his Church history: "The 
prevailing opinion that Christ was to come and 
reign a thousand years among men before the 
final dissolution of the world, had met with no 
opposition previous to the time of Origen." Chill- 
ingworth says, speaking of the first four centu- 
ries: "It was the catholic doctrine of the age." 
The infidel historian, Gibbon, says of the same 
period: "It appears to have been the reigning 
sentiment of orthodox believers," and he con- 
tinues: "As long as this error," as he denominates 
it, "was permitted to subsist in the church, it was 
productive of the most salutary effects on the 
faith and practice of Christians." In the light 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 19 

then of the teaching of the universal church for 
four hundred years after the apostles' time, and 
in the light of many plain scripture texts on this 
point, how our modern preachers can advocate 
the post-millennial ideas that are becoming" so 
prevalent can be accounted for only by believing 
that many of them are of the number that Jesus 
called "blind leaders of the blind," or of the num- 
ber of those "teachers" that Paul declared in the 
"last days" would be "heaped together." 

If Christ and some of His apostles had believed 
this post-millennial doctrine, why this utter si- 
lence on their part in reference to it? Or what is 
more noteworthy, why speak to the very opposite 
as in the passages quoted above? If a belief of 
this theory to-day be of such vast importance as 
an incentive to evangelistic and missionary effort 
as its champions assert it to be, then was it not 
more so in the infancy of the church, when her 
entire force was a missionary force? And is it 
not strange that Paul, her mightiest missionary 
and inspired teacher, entirely overlooked it, and 
even affirmed the contrary. Read II Thess, ii: 
If, as our post-millennial friends assert, there is 
to be a universal reign of peace for a thousand 
years before the return of Christ, then the fol 
lowing words of Jesus, which are recorded in live 
different places in the gospels, are entirely incon- 
sistent: "Watch, for in such an hour as ye think 
not the Son of Man cometh." For why should 
we watch now for His coming if there must elapse 
between now and that event a thousand years of 



20 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

universal righteousness and peace? Watching for 
an imminent occurrence and believing that an 
event will transpire after a thousand years, are 
entirely different states of mind. Our opponents 
practically assert that Jesus made the mistake of 
intending the latter when he commanded the 
former. Again, in Math, xxviii: 19, 20, Christ's 
great commission to His disciples is: "Go ye and 
teach all nations * * * and lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." "Now, 
how can this passage be reconciled with a mil- 
lennium before Christ's coming, when it is stated 
that during the millennium, "They shall not teach 
every man his neighbor and every man his broth- 
er, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know 
Him from the least to the greatest." This post- 
millennial theory would make Christ's command 
obsolete a thousand years before the end ot the 
world (age), to which He declared that He would 
be with them in preaching. Away with such 
man-made doctrines of devils, that are opposed to 
the word of God. These popular heresies are the 
products of seducing spirits, and should be tried 
by the touch-stone of God's word. From these 
texts and arguments and many others that might 
be given, as well as from the deepening corrup- 
tion and widespread wickedness of the times, we 
are convinced that there will be no millennium 
until ushered in by the presence of Christ himself. 
Though we are convinced that in the near fut- 
ure there will be a reign of universal righteous- 
ness when "the wolf shall also dwell with the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 21 

lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid 
and the calf and the young" lion and the f atling to- 
gether, and a little child shall lead them. * * 

* * They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my 
holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the 
sea." Yet we see no scriptural ground of hope 
for this state of affairs till Jesus comes person- 
ally. If any one will read carefully and with an 
unbiased mind the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, 
where the above quotation is found, he will see 
that this state of things is said to follow the com- 
ing of the Son of Jesse, who is with righteousness 
to judge the poor, "and with the breath of his lips 
to slay the wicked." Then if some one asserts 
that this refers to His first coming and that the 
millennium is here now, I have only to add that 
Christ has not yet taken the judgment seat and 
will not till the consummation of all things; nor 
has He with the breath of His lips slain the 
wicked. Nor is there a single text of scripture 
that will justify the assertion of some, that we 
are enjoying the millennium now. If we are, it is 
surely a millennium of wickedness rather than 
one of righteousness, and the nations of earth are 
beating their pruning hooks into swords rather 
than the reverse. They are making war the most 
expensive science rather than as God hath said, ' 'to 
learn war no more." Nor is there any foundation 
in the Bible for the notion that Christ's second 
coming is a spiritual revelation rather than a real 
personal appearance. The angels on the mount 



22 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

of Olives said to the wondering* disciples as they 
stood gazing- up into heaven after their departing 
Lord: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
up into heaven. This same Jesus which is taken 
up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ve have seen Him go into heaven?" 
He went a personal, corporeal being, and He must 
come as such to verify the truth of the angelic 
statement. He saj T s Himself: "As the lightning 
cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the 
west, even* so shall the coming of the Son of Man 
be." None will deny that Jesus had come in a 
spiritual sense to John, yet he afterward prayed, 
"Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Christ 
is come now spiritually to His people. He has 
come now at the death of many of His saints. He 
has come now in His providences, making all things 
work together for good to them that love Him. 
But there is a blessed sense in which He promises 
to come again as judge and ruler, to be followed 
by "the armies which were in heaven," and hav- 
ing upon His vesture a name written, "King of 
Kings, and Lord of Lords." And in the battle 
which ensues the beast and the false prophet are 
to be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire 
burning with brimstone. Then an angel is seen 
coming down from heaven, "Having the key of 
the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, 
and he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent, 
which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a 
thousand years and cast him into the bottomless 
pit, and shut him up and put a seal upon him that 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 23 

he should deceive the nations no more till the 
thousand years should be ended, and after that he 
should be loosed for a little season." Then speak- 
ing of the saints, the apostle continues, they lived 
and reigned with Christ a thousand years. That 
none but saints enjoy this blessed privilege is 
proven by the words: "Blessed and holy are they 
that have a part in the first resurrection." The 
thousand years preceded by the resurrection of 
the righteous dead, all orthodox Christians be- 
lieve to be the millennium, when Christ shall 
reign on the throne of His father, David, And 
it is a significant fact, as all may see by reading 
the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Revela- 
tion, that this millennium does not appear until 
after Christ's second coming. And in chapter 
twenty, verse seven, and to the end of the book, 
the apostle tells of the general judgment and the 
eternal glory that shall follow the thousand 
years. 

The Christian church is making the very mis- 
take which the Jewish church made in regard to 
Christ's coming. The Jews shut their eyes to all 
other features of His appearing but its glory; and, 
their eyes, as a consequence, grew so dazed at the 
sight that they failed to see the humiliation which 
was essential to His glory. We should not be so 
taken up with the glory of His coming as to over- 
look the fact that He is also to come ' 'In flaming 
fire, taking vengence on them that know not God 
and obey not the gospel of His Son." As to 
whether or not the thousand years' millennium are 



24 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

to be spent on the renewed and glorified earth, 
scripture leaves very little doubt. All the prophets 
declare that "The earth shall be full of the know- 
ledge of the Lord," and that "where sin abounded 
grace shall much more abound. " We see no reason 
why this earth, when purged from sin, should not 
be the seat of Him who thus redeemed it? There is 
nothing essentially vile in physical substance. 
With sin and all its effects destroyed, this earth 
would be an Eden, and in a very literal sense the 
meek could inherit the earth. We must remem- 
ber that the earth was cursed for man's sin, and 
God declared that it should bring forth thorns 
and thistles. How beautiful might this world be 
yet, if sin and all its effects were but removed 
and it restored to its prestine grandure. Behold 
its fields of golden grain, its orchards of luscious 
fruits, its picturesque forests and exquisite foli- 
age, its magnificent mountains and majestic riv- 
ers, its almost enchanting glens and fairy nooks, 
and as you are being charmed by its lovliness 
and regaled by the aroma from its floral forests, you 
involuntarily whisper: "Every prospect pleases 
and only man is vile." But thank God that sin 
is to be expunged and all its train of concomitant 
evils to be destroyed and righteousness, peace 
and plenty to be enjoyed, a universal Eden, pre- 
sided over by Him who was once looked upon as 
"a root out of a dry ground, smitten of God and 
afflicted," but is now seen to be "the Chief est of 
ten thousand and the One altogether lovely." 



CHAPTER II. 

Let us now examine some of those prophecies 
which immediately relate to the last days and as- 
certain if any of them have been fulfilled. In 
Matthew xxiv: 14, we read: "And this gospel of 
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world 
as a witness to all the nations, and then shall the 
end come." In this text there is both a prophecy 
and a promise. The prophecy has been fulfilled, 
which proves that the promise is about to be. If 
you, appeal to the recent reports of Bible socie- 
ties you will find that there is not a written lan- 
guage on earth in which the word of God has not 
been translated. There is not a nation on earth, 
or an island of the sea, that to a greater or less 
degree has not heard the gospel. That angelic 
paean which sounded in the ears of the Judean 
shepherds: "Peace on earth and good will to 
men," has rung out from the peaks of the Hyma- 
layas, the Alps, the Andes, the Sierra Nevadas. 
It has cut its way through the impenetrable jun- 
gles of Africa to the great lakes at its core. It 
has broken through the granite walls of China 
and intrenched itself in the heart of Pekin. It 
has pierced the heavy vail of Corean shame and 



26 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

kissed with its warming beams every island of the 
sea and every nation of the earth. In fact it has 
girdled the globe. This mighty achievement has 
largely been done in the past thirty years. The 
opening of the Suez canal has helped in this. 
European wars have even contributed a part. 
The explorations of Livingstone and Stanley have 
assisted much. The printing press, the telegraph 
and telephone, the marine engine, the locomotive, 
all these late discoveries are inspired by God and 
put in motion to bring about the glorious end. 
War, famine and pestilence are His plowshares 
which open furrows for gospel seed. This text 
does not say all nations will be converted, it sim- 
ply declares ' 'this gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached to all nations as a witness." This has 
lately been done, and never was done before the 
present decade. 

The natural sun, humanly speaking, rises in the 
east and sets in the west. Jesus is called the Sun 
of Righteousness. He came in Palestine, the ex- 
treme east, where He was rejected. Steadily the 
rays of the Sun of Righteousness pierced the 
western blackness, chasing the darkness of na- 
ture's night from the hearts and homes of men, 
and leaving its eastern rejectors who "loved 
darkness rather than light," to the gloom they 
loved.* Onward the spiritual sun pressed until 
to-day in this western land we enjoy His last 
sinking rays, while those in eastern nations are 
largely in gross darkness. This western nation 
is largely the missionary force of the world, and 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 27 

embraces all the light, knowledge and improve- 
ment of the ages. The globe has been girdled, 
the sun of hope for this world is fast sinking be- 
hind the everlasting hills. Surely, the evening 
shadows lengthen across the plains of time, the 
sun ot hope is setting in the great eternal sea. 
Now, this text ends by saying: "When this gos- 
pel is preached to all nations for a witness, then 
shall the end come." The mediatorial robe of 
Jesus will soon be folded away in the tomb of 
time, as His garment was at the sepulchre, 
while He leaves the mediatorial throne for the 
judgment seat. 

The apostle Peter quotes the following words 
from the prophet Joel : ' ' And it shall come to pass 
in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my 
spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daugh- 
ters shall prophesy (preach.)" Though this pre- 
diction was in a sense fulfilled, or began to be 
fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, yet strictly 
speaking, it has never been entirely fulfilled till 
in the last twenty years. In what other age 
was there seen such an army of holy young peo- 
ple, especially women, in the pulpit as now? God 
is pouring out His spirit on the "sons and daugh- 
ters," or young people of the land, and they must 
prophesy. This prophecy is having a literal ful- 
fillment in the holy hordes of young people who, 
under the baptism of the Holy Ghost, are to-day 
moving out into the evangelistic field and press- 
ing the claims of God. There is no distinction 
made between the work of the women and that of 



28 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

the men in the text. Women, as evangelists, mis- 
sionaries and pastors, have proven themselves 
equally successful with men. Few are the places 
either in art, science or trade, where she cannot 
stand side-by-side with her masculine compan- 
ion. The fulfillment of this prophecy is at least 
remarkable. 

In the parable of the great supper, as recorded 
in Luke xiv, the last offers of mercy were sent to 
the maimed and halt and blind in the streets and 
lanes of the city and in the highways and hedges. 
We are aware that this fact was to point out the 
particular features of the entire gospel dispensa- 
tion, yet it is also having a singular fulfillment in 
the fact that in no other generation was there any 
approach to as many open air meetings as at 
present. In all nations and in countless towns, 
missionaries, holiness preachers, members of the 
Salvation Army and Pentecost Bands and God's 
Spirit-anointed servants generally, are holding 
street meetings and religious out-door exercises. 
They are in these last days bearing God's last 
offers of mercy to the unenlightened and neg- 
lected masses who never enter a house of worship 
Reader, will you help in this mighty advance 
upon the powers of darkness? What we do we 
must do quickly. Do not be kept from this di- 
vine command by a false shame, as are many. 
"The disciple is not above his Lord." Jesus was 
a "street preacher." His most eloquent and ef- 
fectual sermons were preached under the open 
sky. Whether the hungry masses on the mount- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 29 

ain side, the unenlightened thousands on the sea 
shore, the ten lepers on the public highway, the 
impotent man by the pool, the blind beggar by 
the roadside, or the adulteress at the well; wher- 
ever He came in touch with fallen and needy hu- 
manity He offered them the panacea of the gospel. 
In fact the church of Christ was born in a street 
meeting, on the day of Pentecost, when three 
thousand were converted on the streets in one 
day under the apostles' preaching after they had 
received the promised baptism of the Holy Ghost. 
Sad has it been for the world that the church did 
not continue as it begun. Christ has in all ages 
been followed in this particular by many of those 
of whom the world was not worthy. P aul, John 
Peter, Luther, Knox, Wesley, Whitefield, and 
many of the founders of existing denominations, 
deemed it not beneath their dignity as preachers 
of the gospel to instruct the unenlightened masses 
out of doors. 

Let my readers remember that I do not pretend 
to exhaust the prophecies, or give a complete 
elucidation of them in this manual; nor am I 
anxious to do my readers' thinking for them. My 
desire is only to call attention to some of the 
marked features to thereby awaken the sleeping 
virgins, who with their lamps trimmed and burn- 
ing, can themselves investigate the prophetic 
portion of God's word that He may teach them 
Himself. God has well said: "My thoughts are 
not your thoughts, neither are your ways (or words) 
my ways (or words)." It was stated truthfully 



30 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

of Jesus, "Never man spake like this man." God's 
word proves its divine character by its very- 
nature. Were it a mere human production it 
could be fathomed at once, and its surface mean- 
ing would exhaust its store. Not so with this 
word. As we drink deeper and deeper of the 
spirit of love and adoration which the writers en- 
joyed, we find meaning after meaning, truth after 
truth underlying each other on every page and in 
every figure and narrative herein recorded. In 
the light of this truth then, let no one declare 
that because some of the prophetic figures of the 
scriptures find either a literal or spiritual fulfill- 
ment in certain historic events that they can have 
no other. This would be to rob God of some of His 
divine attributes and make Him a mere man. Be- 
cause of this mistake many expositors of scrip- 
ture have erred and shamefully assaulted each 
other. Without doubt many of these figures and 
dates cover various incidents, as commentators of 
different denominations have shown. 

The angel of the Lord in speaking of "the time 
of the end" to Daniel, the prophet, chap, xii: 4, 
says: "Many shall run to and fro and knowledge 
shall be increased." Also Joel ii: 4, "The char- 
iots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle 
one against another in the broadways; they shall 
seem like torches, they shall run like light- 
nings." These passages are having a striking 
fulfillment in our day. Never was known such 
an age of locomotion and learning as the present. 
The steam railway coaches and electric street 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 31 

cars — one runs "like lightning," the other "by- 
lightning;" they "jostle together in the streets," 
and in their mad flight they "seem like torches," 
The locomotive, the steamboat and the electric 
dynamo have opened up modes of locomotion be- 
fore unknown, and as a consequence "Many run 
to and fro" till the amount of travel to the same 
number of people in other ages is greatly multi- 
plied and "knowledge is increased." Electricity 
and steam have almost annihilated space and 
time, and have united Calcutta, London, St. Pe- 
tersburg, Pekin, New York City and the commer- 
cial centers of the world almost as completely as if 
there were neither ocean nor mountain between 
them. Again, the printing press, with its bibles, 
encyclopedias, journals and newspapers is fast 
increasing knowledge. Astronomy has lately 
ransacked the heavens and brought to view plan- 
ets, suns and systems before unknown. It has 
weighed the world, measured the sun, followed its 
flying rays to earth in eight minutes, calculated 
the distance to the various planets, foretold 
eclipses and caught the first appearances of light 
that has been thousands of years flying from its 
fiery scource in orbs before unknown. In fact, 
the telescope has been turned into a camera with 
which the astronomer has endeavored to photo- 
graph God in His labratory of the heavens. "The 
heavens declare the glory of God," for system 
and order are every where revealed. On the 
rocky page of the lately discovered geological 
chart the footprints of Jehovah are plainly dis- 



32 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

cernable. And the emerald carpet of the earth 
is proven to have dropped from the botanic looms 
of a God of order and omnipotence. This late 
"knowledge" is seen to be sound, from the fact that 
it is in perfect accordance with the Bible, and 
where Moses and the prophets were said to be 
wrong, science proves them to be either inspired, 
or else four thousand years ahead of the learning' 
of their day. 

This is the age of encyclopedias. Plow boys 
and kitchen girls can acquire more learning to- 
day than the philosophers and sages of other 
ages, because knowledge has increased. The 
multiplication of free schools and compulsory 
education laws are fast fulfilling this prophecy. 
Space forbids a record of the "knowledge in- 
creased" through the medium of modern research 
and science. But certain it is that this is pecu- 
liarly the age of locomotion and learning, and 
"Many run to and fro and knowledge is in- 
creased." The human mind has thus been quick- 
ened and man endowed with this marvelous in- 
ventive power, doubtless that modes of commun- 
ication before unknown should be opened up, in 
order to send the gospel to the remotest nation 
and herald the tidings of our Lord's approach to 
every corner of the earth during the life of this 
last generation. In II Tim. iii: 1-4, we find a 
cluster of prophecies relating to the end of time, 
which, strangely enough, exactly describe the 
state of affairs in the world to-day, social, polit- 
ical and ecclesiastical. "This know that in the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 33 

last days perilous times shall come, for men 
shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, 
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to pa- 
rents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affec- 
tion, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, 
fierce, despisers of those that are good. Trait- 
ors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more 
than lovers of God; having" a form of godliness, 
but denying the power thereof." 

"When was there ever seen such "self-love" or 
"covetousness" or "pride?" When were ever 
heard such blasphemies or "proud boasts" as 
now? "When did there ever live a generation of 
children as "disobedient to parents," as "un- 
thankful, unholy," as the present? It is a re- 
markable fact that quite small children to-day 
are more profane and disobedient than young 
men of other years. When did there ever live a 
class of people so void of natural affection 
as many to-day are, when doctors tell us of the 
amazing number of infants that are murdered by 
maternal hands before they see the light or soon 
after, and every newspaper teems with accounts 
of husbands murdered by wives and wives by 
husbands, and parents by children, etc.? When 
did ever appear so many "lustful," incontinent" 
and "fierce despisers of those that are good," as 
now? In what age lived so many "lovers of pleas- 
ure," as in the present age? On every hand all 
kinds of devices are resorted to for pleasure. Art, 
war, education, wealth, science, all count their 
adherents by millions, but pleasure has more wor- 



34 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

shippers than they all. This is peculiarly the 
age of pleasure. Yet, with all this, the persons 
here described are church members ' 'having a 
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 
Is not this fearful, indeed? Surely the multitudes 
of graceless and powerless professors of religion 
should heed this warning. They are not only 
void of the power of godliness, but in their bap- 
tized infidelity they deny its very existence. 

In the second chapter of Thessalonians, where 
Paul is particularly speaking of the coming end 
and the antichrist that is to be dethroned, he as- 
serts: "That day shall not come except there be a 
falling away first and that man of sin be re- 
vealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and 
exalteth himself above all that is called God." 
This "falling away" is the "famine of hearing 
of the word of the Lord," spoken of by Amos, 
the prophet. It does not take much research to 
see that this spiritual "falling away" is as wide- 
spread as virulent to-day and rapidly growing 
more so. And because of the fact many of His 
professing people "have pleasure in unrighteous- 
ness, He has threatened through his servants, 
Isaiah and Paul, in these last days to send them 
"strong delusions that they might believe a lie 
and be damned." Real spirituality is at a very 
low ebb in the various denominations of the land. 
The spiritual principles and tenets that brought 
many of them into existence are positively op- 
posed by many of their members or abandoned al- 
together, and very loosely adhered to by a ma- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 35 

jority of the remainder. Ostentatious reforms 
are fast taking* the place of spirituality among 
the professed people ot God. A golden age is 
talked of and looked for in the near future as a 
result of the various reforms of the day. Human 
progress and education are being made to usurp 
the place of the religion of Jesus, while God is 
made an ontlaw and the Bible but a fossil of the 
past. The very principles of education and re- 
form that constitute the base of this delusive 
hope are seen by spiritual sight to contain not 
only the germs of their own defeat, but are the 
very essence, mind and spirit of the antichrist 
divinely described in connection with this subject. 
The dominant ideas and reforms of our day, which 
are so much lauded, are the very things which are 
bringing about the falling away described by 
Paul, as the forerunner and cause of the man of 
sfti. Read II Thess. ii. 

On every hand in modern pulpits we hear apol- 
ogies for the old-time cries and groans of penitent 
sinners, and for the old-time plainess of apparel 
and shouts of joy which have been replaced by 
ritualism and reform. The philosophies, politics, 
theologies and popular sciences of to-day all tend 
to glorify carnality and deify man. This baptized 
rationalism is the worst form of infidelity; while 
professing to believe in God it denies the practica- 
bility of the righteous principles of the gospel. 
Even our theological schools are not free from this 
snare that does away with not only the scheme of 
redemption, but the God of creation also, and 



36 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

practically accepts of evolution as the creator; 
original slime-pits as the labratory of this strange 
god, and monkeys, aligators and tadpoles as the 
ancestors of the human race. The worshippers 
at this popular altar are very devoted to their 
peculiar deity, and after weeks and months of 
digging, delving and research, lay their offerings 
of antedeluvian bones and fossils on his altar, 
accompanied with modern spiders, snakes, worms, 
fish scales, strange stones, half -formed animals 
of all description, etc., etc. "We do not wish to 
advocate ignorance; would to God there were 
more real practical learning in the land, but what 
we deplore is this culture worship and deification 
of human improvement; this science of mud rather 
than mind, soil rather than soul, dirt rather than 
Deity, which is being made the soul food for 
young ministers, and in the minds of many, the 
highest education they can attain. This so-called 
"liberal spirit" of the age is to be greatly de- 
plored in its subtle efforts to induce the church of 
Christ to abandon her divine mission and resolve 
herself into a mere reform system. 

Who can sufficiently deprecate that insidious 
spirit that under the guise of human improve- 
ment is East turning our theological schools into 
mere scientific gymnasiums and literary museums, 
possessed of a secular rather than a sacred char- 
acter. This spirit has already in many places 
either entirely expunged parts of the Bible or 
classed them among the apocryphal writings, and 
if followed much farther would leave us to 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 37 

depend entirely upon the philosophical distinc- 
tions and scientific theorems of heathen philoso- 
phers rather than the inspired word of God for our 
salvation. The influence of the so-called Christ- 
ian scientific institutions of our day is so wide- 
spread, so enchanting and powerful as to form 
almost the only religion of the learned classes. 
It is not considered fashionable or in accord with 
good taste or sound sense to build one's faith or 
hopes on the old-fashioned Bible alone. Science 
must be made to piece out the Bible in its ineffic- 
iency, or take its place altogether. The living 
principles behind these effects are deeply rooted 
in the popular mind, and are fast bringing about 
a state of civil and religious anarchy and misrule, 
especially against the claims of God. As a con- 
sequence of these subtle influences at work there 
is not only a great falling away, but these ' 'strong 
delusions" have given rise to many erratic and 
wild theories and ideas. These in turn have pro 
duced, and are still producing, many and baneful 
schisms and disruptions in the professed church of 
God. God says "Woe unto the inhabiters of the 
earth, for the devil hath come down unto you, 
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he 
hath but little time to stay;" "and, because in- 
iquity shall abound the love of many shall wax 
cold." As never in the past God's real peo- 
ple need to exercise much charity toward 
those who do not see in all particulars as they do, 
for perilous times and strong delusions are on the 
earth; and, from a Bible standpoint, we see 



38 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

no hope of its being better till it is much worse. 
Jesus seemed to intimate that this "f ailing 
away" in the last days would be so great that 
there might be no real faithful ones left, for He 
asks the question: "Nevertheless, when the Son 
of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" 
To the shame and shortsightedness of God's pro- 
fessed people, be it said, there is hardly a relig- 
ious denomination in existence that is not to-day 
shaken and torn with internal differences and 
disruption, or else openly split into various war- 
ring factions. It is good even as the divine word 
has said to "Stand in the way and see and ask for 
the old paths where is the good way, and walk 
therein and ye shall find rest for your souls." The 
old track of complete acquiescence to the whole 
will of God, a hearty sacrifice of our entire pow- 
ers and possessions to His glory, and the con- 
sciousness that our ways please Him, alone is safe. 
God also declares that when this state of things 
is in existence that His professed people "Will 
not endure sound doctrine, but shall heap to 
themselves teachers having itching ears and they 
shall turn away their ears from the truth and they 
shall be turned unto fables. " This surely describes 
many of the man-pleasing hirelings, that as Christ 
said, are "blind leaders of the blind" in the 
fashionable but degenerate denominations of the 
land. Owing to the fact that the work of the 
ministry is not entered generally these days 
under a divine call, as of old, but is chosen as a 
profession, as is that of the lawyer, doctor, or 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 39 

any of the trades, simply for the money that is in 
it; these preachers are so numerous that God has 
well described their number as ■ 'heaped." And 
as a consequence of the work of these unsancti- 
fied teachers it is stated of the people "they shall 
be turned unto fables;" scientific fables, doubtless. 
Well has the prophet written: "Oh, my people, 
they which lead thee, cause thee to err!" This 
state of thing's helps to bring 1 about the condition 
in which the apostle declared God's professed 
people would be, in the latter days — "having 
a form of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof." 

In immediate connection with the subject under 
discussion is the fulfillment of another very 
marked prophecy. Daniel xiii: 7, God's angel 
swore by Him that liveth forever, that "When he 
(the devil) shall have accomplished to scatter the 
power of the holy people all these things shall be 
finished," that is, the end shall come. Though 
this prophecy was literally fulfilled and God's 
holy people, Israel, scattered when the temple, 
the holy city and the land of promise were taken 
from the Jews and they were driven from the 
land of their fathers by the Gentiles, yet its spir- 
itual fulfillment is now as never betore being ac- 
complished by the divisions among God's spirit- 
ual children. And as sure as the prophecy here 
has been fulfilled and God's holy people have 
been and are being scattered, so will the promise 
be fulfilled and the end of all things be accom- 
plished in the very near future. Is not this 



40 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

prophecy on spiritual lines fast running into 
history? Are we blind to the fact thai God's 
most sainted and "holy people" of all de- 
nominations, and of no denomination, instead 
of being* united in effort to "contend for the 
faith once delivered to the saints," are as di- 
vided, riven and scattered over mere trifles and 
non-essesentials as are the denominations as 
bodies. In the last few years, as in no past age, 
have there arisen such schisms, divisions and 
lack of unity among the professed people of God, 
till their power is literally "scattered." That is, 
their power for good is not focused on the un- 
saved world as if they stood in one solid pha- 
lanx. And often over the merest trifles is this 
scattering brought in. God help us! The sight 
is appalling to angels and men; and the hope of a 
lost world, that God has placed in our hands as 
His "holy people," is dying as a consequence of 
this Satanic scattering of our power. 

One cause of this "scattering" is found in the 
text: "Because iniquity shall abound the love of 
many shall wax cold." Many to-day who have 
been bright and shining lights in God's work 
have grown cold and discouraged over the exten- 
sive apostasies, and widespread and increasing 
departure from the old land-marks. Another 
cause ot this "scattering" is found in the text: 
"Woe unto you inhabiters of the earth, for the 
devil hath come down unto you, having great 
wrath, because he knoweth he hath but little 
time to stay." That is, he knew the end was 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 41 

near. Just to the extent that the devil gets pos- 
session of an individual he will oppose the old 
track of power, and just to the extent that the 
devil gets possession of denominations they will 
legislate and pass resolutions against the way of 
power; thus the ' 'scattering" will continue. But 
bad though it is at present, it is nevertheless ap- 
parent to the reflective student of prophecy and 
the considerate Christian statesman that it is 
destined to be much worse before it is better. 
The more spiritual the religious body is, the 
more will this Satanic woe be poured upon it till 
all of them be shaken and torn, if not entirely de- 
stroyed before the final and fast coming judg- 
ment. This device of the devil will doubtelss be 
brought in through the plausible medium of new 
and novel doctrines disguised as improvements, 
or else as in the past, by a falling away from the 
old landmarks. "It must needs be that offences 
come; but woe to that man by whom the offence 
cometh." God, the judge of all the earth, knows 
where the real cause of the offences starts, and 
who the real offenders are. Erratic ideas, new and 
strange doctrines and novel notions, both in relig- 
ious and secular affairs, are springing up almost 
as numerous as the frogs in Egypt, and threaten 
the complete dissolution of governments, both civil 
and ecclesiastical. Better that a mill-stone be 
hanged about the neck than to give currency to 
those latter day ideas which God denominates 
"strong delusions," or "doctrines of devils," and 
consequently scatter the work and people of God. 



42 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

In the text quoted from the prophet Daniel the Lord 
swore that when the devil should have accom- 
plished this scattering* that these visions of the 
prophet should all be finished. Oh! how the peo- 
ple of God everywhere should humble themselves 
and seek for that "love that thinketh no evil;" 
that "seeketh not her own;" that "is not pro- 
voked;" that "beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; 
that never faileth." This alone will foil the 
devil in his infernal designs, which are often in- 
troduced under the guise of uncompromising zeal 
for God's cause in some of its branches. 

The sin of "the unwise servant" originally con- 
sisted in his saying: "My lord delayeth his com- 
ing," but it did not stop there. This sin led to 
worse things, and he next began to "beat the 
men servants and maidens and to eat and drink 
and be drunken. This is an exact description of 
the professed church, the Lord's great "servant," 
whom "He made ruler over His house to give 
them their portion of meat in due season." But 
the professed church in these last days has been 
deceived by a popular heresy, and has been say- 
ing, not; "my Lord will never return," but "my- 
Lord delayeth His coming." And now this de- 
lusion has been given place to so long that she is 
eating" and drinking and glutting herself with the 
wealth and pomp of the world, and being drunken 
on the wine of popular applause. This is not 
all; she is "beating the men servants and the 
maidens" with her ecclesiastical cudgels. The 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 43 

great body of the church has left off serving God 
in the spirit itself, and now opposes and beats 
with the rod of conference and presbytery resolu- 
tions, restrictions and condemnations, the men 
servants and maidens who are really serving 
Him. Those real servants who are in these latter 
days, generally unauthorized or lay members, 
must feel the rod of religious intolerance or suffer 
ecclesiastical scourging or decapitation, till the 
"Lord of that servant (Christ Himself) comes at 
an hour when He is not expected, and appoints 
him (the fallen church) his place among the hypo- 
crites." Surely, this will soon be done unless 
there is a mighty reformation on the part of the 
professed church. It is a very notable fact, es- 
pecially in our large cities that most of the real 
work which is being done on gospel lines is 
carried on by obscure missions and missionaries, 
while the great and popular church bodies have 
largely resolved themselves into play houses, en- 
tertainment clubs, and worldly reform systems. 
But thank God, though the bulk of the church 
has been thus recreant to her high trust, the di- 
vine promise is still good to the faithful few who 
feed, rather than fleece the flock. "Who then is 
that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord 
shall make ruler over his household to give them 
their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is 
that servant whom his Lord when He cometh 
shall find so doing." 

Jesus Himself, in speaking of His second ad- 
vent under the figure of the wise and foolish 



44 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

virgins, said: "At midnight there was a cry 
made: behold the bridegroom cometh." This 
could not refer to the particular hour of His com- 
ing, or mean natural midnight, for again He says: 
"No man knoweth the day nor the hour;" and 
again He added, He might come "at the cock- 
crowing or in the morning." Now as this first 
statement is emphatic, and the latter ones are 
unemphatic, His meaning is simply this: in the 
latter passages He had reference to the time of 
His coming, and in the former He referred to the 
moral condition of the world just prior to that 
event. The growing self-sufficiency, doubtful 
science, and religious infidelity of these last days 
are fast bringing this world into a state of moral 
midnight, which will be perfected in dense dark- 
ness by the withdrawal of God's spirit from the 
earth at the fast nearing fulfillment of the "times 
of the Gentiles." As the world nears its intel- 
lectual noonday its moral midnight becomes more 
dark and dense. The formal and ostentatious 
religion of these times, though it educates, ele- 
vates, restrains, gives the world a fine grade of 
civilization and answers many excellent ends, 
yet nevertheless leaves the soul untouched. And 
because this fashionable religion which is so 
easily attained is becoming so universally popu- 
lar, moral darkness is rapidly settling down upon 
the world. But thank God that as never in the 
past there is an interest being manifested among 
God's spiritual people in reference to the second 
advent. It is the Midnight Cry, and calculated 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 45 

to awaken the sleeping* virgins, for all His ser- 
vants have been too indifferent to this stupendous 
occurrence. All who are virgins will surely 
awake to the importance of the occasion but only 
those wise ones who have the oil of divine grace 
in their vessels will be ready to go into the wed- 
ding supper of the lamb, while the mere citizens 
of this adulterous world will sleep on till awak- 
ened by the trumpets of judgment. Reader, will 
you arouse to the importance of this subject? 
All must prove their divine or diabolical rela- 
tions by heeding or ignoring the truth. Oh! 
"awake, thou that sleepest," and trim your lamp, 
and see that there is oil in your vessel, ere, like 
the foolish virgins, you do so when too late. 

In the third chapter of II Peter it is written: 
"Knowing this that there shall come in the last 
days scoffers, walking in their own lusts and 
saying: where is the promise of His coming? for 
since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as 
they were from the beginning of creation." What 
a wide-spread fulfillment is this prophecy having 
in our day. This intellectual, unbelieving and 
materialistic age is well calculated to produce 
hordes of even professors of religion who, in their 
worldly wisdom, disbelieve the divine account of 
the second advent; being, as the apostle said: 
"Willingly ignorant" of "the signs of the times," 
"scoffing," say, "Where is the promise of His 
coming, * * * all things continue as they 
were from the beginning, etc." Remember it was 
written that men would talk thus only in the last 



46 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

days; take care, dear reader, that you reject not 
the divine record and put yourself among the 
"scoffers," who thus speak, and thereby fulfilling 
the divine prophecy yourself and giving" a farther 
sign of the last days. 

In Matthew xxiv, Jesus, in speaking of the end 
of the world, gives as one of the signs of its ap- 
proach, that "there shall arise false christs." 
Though there have arisen imposters in other 
ages who have taken to themselves divine honors, 
yet in no age was the world so cursed with this 
sort of profanity as at present, when we do not 
have to leave the shores of our own enlightened 
nation to-day to encounter three blasphemous im- 
posters, all of whom style themselves "the Christ 
of God." This is no unimportant fact to students 
of "the signs ot the times." 

As one of the material signs of the end of this 
age, Jesus said: "There shall be earthquakes in 
divers places." The omniscient Jesus was well 
aware of the fact that there had been earthquakes 
in the past, and that there should be earthquakes 
in the middle ages; in fact, that there always 
had and always would be earthquakes. Yet He, 
who never made a mistake, or uttered an idle 
word, gave as one of the corporeal signs of His 
second advent that there should be "earthquakes 
in divers places." Read the large dailies of the 
land and you will be surprised to find there is 
hardly a week passes that there is not an account 
of an earthquake in some section of the globe. 
The late born seismologist with his wonderful 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 47 

seismograph, or instrument for ascertaining* the 
exact time at which earthquakes occur, and the 
comparative violence of each shock, has devel- 
oped some interesting facts in the past twenty- 
five years in reference to the strange agitations 
called earthquakes. But though much has been 
discovered, our knowledge but reveals to us our 
real ignorance as to any definite idea of the cause 
of this strange visitant. Among 1 other facts dis- 
covered by the seismograph is the fact that there 
is no period of time when there are not earth- 
quakes occurring at some part of the globe, and 
shocks capable of notice without an instrument, 
have been lately revealed to the number of fifty 
in one day. Of course our learned men try to 
settle the public agitation that a knowledge of 
this fact would arouse by the statement that it 
was doubtless always so, only in other ages we 
had no way of finding* out this fact. These wise- 
acres evidently believe this to be true, which 
gives us another example of how the ' 'wisdom of 
man is foolishness with God." That "the wise 
might be taken in their own craftiness." As it 
is written: "The wisdom of God is wiser than 
men, and the weakness of God is stronger than 
men." 

We insert a few facts and figures here, however, 
to offset the pernicious influence of this falsely 
so-called science. The total number of earth- 
quakes mentioned by all the writers of the earth 
before the Christian era is given at fifty-eight. 
Never until the past two centuries has Europe 



48 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

been harrassed by these mundane convulsions. 
Mungo Pontom, F. R. S. E., gives the following- 
table showing the increase of earthquakes down 
to 1850: 

Total. Great. No. of Yrs. 

Those recorded before A. D., 58 4 1,700 

Thence to end of 9th century, 197 15 900 

Thence to end of 15th century, 532 44 600 

Thence toend of 18th century, 2,804 100 300 

Thence to the year 1850, 3,240 53 50 



Total 5,831 216 

Again, the great increase in the number of these 
convulsions can be seen if we state the number 
which occurred in the different centuries. There 
were ten in the seventh century, eleven in the 
eighth, thirty- six in the ninth, seventeen in the 
tenth, fifty-seven in the eleventh, sixty-eight in 
the twelfth, fifty-five in the thirteenth, one hun- 
dred and ten in the sixteenth, one hundred in the 
seventeenth, six hundred and eighty in the eigh- 
teenth, nine hundred and twenty-four in the first 
half of the nineteenth. There has hardly been 
a week lately that the large dailies have not re- 
corded accounts of an earthquake at some part of 
the globe, and the seismologist declares that 
there is one taking place some where every 
minute. Professor Milne declares that from 
the year 1843 to 1868 there were over 17,000 earth- 
quakes. No tongue or pen can fully describe the 
terror caused by these awful visitations and 
their accompanying phenomena, such as volcanic 
eruptions, inky ocean waves, thunderous roaring 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 49 

sounds, monster tidal waves, and air waves. Vol- 
canic eruptions increase just in proportion with 
earthquakes, as it is evident that the same cause 
produces both. This old crippled earth, which 
God said should "wax old as doth a garment," 
needs the reconstructing hand of the Great Physi- 
cian to heal her bowel troubles. The fearfulness 
of these scourges can be seen in the fact that the 
Lisbon earthquake shock, which commenced on 
the papist idolatrous festival of All-Saints day, 
Nov. 1, 1755, and lasted for over two years, de- 
stroyed 200,000 lives. It is also stated that in 
Peru and other lands in 1868, 100,000 person per- 
ished, and in Java and its neighboring islands 
there were said to have perished 100,000 more. 
In the absence of any reliable scientific definition 
of the cause of earthquakes, I feel like attributing 
them to the stamp of God's indignant foot upon 
the earth that has rebelled against Him. In the 
light of the foregoing facts, who dare assert that 
this earth is not drawing to her end? 

In connection with the assertion that the prev- 
alence of earthquakes would be a sign of the 
nearness of His second coming, Jesus added these 
words as an additional sign; "There shall be 
famines and pestilences." Few, indeed, are the 
nations of the earth which have not suffered more 
or less, in some respects, from famines or pesti- 
lences in late years. 

Like the earthquake, the plague, which is es- 
pecially called in the Bible a judgment from God, 
is seen to become more baneful as the earth nears 



50 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

her end. We state a few facts concerning the 
later ones. In 1352, 900,000, persons died of star- 
vation during a famine in China, and 60,000 per- 
sons are said to have perished from like cause in 
Milan in 1427 and 1450. Nearly all Europe had 
famine from 1600 to 1603, and in Muscovy 500,000 
are said to have died, and one -tenth of the inhab- 
itants of Finland also perished. In 1740 and 
1741 nearly 100,000 are said to have died of star- 
vation and disease. In India in 1764 30,000,000 
died. This is too awful to contemplate. The dry 
breasts of mother earth refused nourishment to 
85,000,000 of her children in India till 30,000,000 
perished; gaunt, hungry famine, sucking the very 
life blood from their veins with none to answer 
their impassioned appeals for bread. How much 
more awful is this than when the sharp steel 
blade severs the silver cord of life or the hissing 
bullet sings the soldier's sudden requiem. But 
awful though this is, we fear that many now 
living will have a closer acquaintance with such 
terrors than contemplation bestows, unless there 
is a mighty turning from sin on the part of the 
nations generally. Sixteen thousand died from 
starvation in Cape De Verde islands in 1775. One 
hundred thousand more died in India in 1788, 
when a universal famine raged which threw 
China and Europe into awful distress. At 
different periods between 1814 and 1846 famines 
occurred in Ireland which reduced her population 
2,000,000. Again in 1866 nearly a million died in 
India from the effects of famine. In 1871, 3,000,000 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 51 

died from like cause in Persia. A fearful famine 
prevailed in Bengal in 1873, of which we have no 
statistics. In 1877, though the East Indian gov- 
ernment paid out $75,000,000 to feed her starving 
citizens, yet 6,000,000 died of starvation. In 1877 
Brazil lost nearly a million by a dreaded plague. 
Morocco and Corea suffered greatly from a like 
cause the same year, and North China lost 10,- 
000,000 the next year, 1878. 

Have some of my readers deemed me pessimis- 
tic in my views, then let optimists disprove these 
figures and do away with the divine predictions 
which they demonstrate. God says: "I have sent 
among you the pestilence," — Amos iv: 10; and, 
"In the last days there shall be famines in divers 
places. Read the account of the "Black Death" 
in the fourteenth century, as it is described as 
bursting from the earth, a horrible vapor, deadly 
and offensive, and consuming all before it. Egypt, 
Syria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Ger- 
many, England, Ireland, Scotland, etc., all felt 
its dreadful ravages, winter and summer alike, 
for years. Dr. Noah Webster says it destroyed 
two-thirds of the human race in eight years, 
(History of Pestilence, Vol. I, page 137.) One 
author declares that a hundred million persons 
perished by it. From that time to the present, 
new and unheard of diseases and pestilences are 
constantly attacking and destroying thousands, 
both of man and beast. 

The fearful money famine that is now in our 
honored republic spending its strength in de- 



52 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

vastation and pauperism, crushing industry and 
labor beneath its bloody, plutocratic heel, is as 
bad as the pestilential, atmospheric disease that 
causes famine by robbing the ground of its pro- 
ducing properties. I say a financial famine pro- 
duced by illegal legislation is about as bad as a 
natural famine, for though the latter devastates 
the farmer's crop, it leaves him his purse, and it 
he has none, it leaves him his fields as a security 
on which to raise money until the famine is past, 
and though it stagnates industry it does not 
bankrupt it, while a money famine takes both the 
produce and the mediums of its existence from 
the agriculturalist and the manufacturer, and 
makes them both the helpless slaves of the finan- 
cial imperialists who have robbed them. Few 
outside the lower circles of humanity, or of the 
city missionaries, will ever know the extent of 
this present money famine till the light of the 
judgment reveals it to its horrified originators. 

But the money scarcity is not the only place in 
which these words apply. The chinch bug, the 
weavel, the Hessian fly, the potato bug, and the 
strange and unaccountable vegetable blight, the 
vast armies of grasshoppers, army worms, cater- 
pillars, cut worms, untimely frosts, etc., etc., 
which are greatly on the increase in many lands, 
are fast pushing the agriculturalists to the verge 
of bankruptcy and the nations of earth to want. 
Also cyclones, whirlwinds, tornadoes, water- 
spouts, blizzards, etc., are much more numerous, 
the world over, than in other years, and are as 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 53 

destructive and more frequent than the sand 
storms or simoons of the far East were wont 
to be. 

As a sign of His speedy coming, Christ said: 
"And there shall be signs in the sun and in the 
moon and in the stars and upon the earth dis- 
tress of nations with perplexity; the sea with the 
waves thereof roaring." — Luke xxi; 25. This 
prophecy is being literally fulfilled before our 
eyes. Let us consider some of the solar, lunar 
and stellar phenomena that are greatly perplex- 
ing our most advanced astronomers to-day. We 
mention first the "Dark Day," as it has been 
termed by eminent writers, when over an area of 
320,000 square miles, and witnessed by 700,000 
people, a gloomy, supernatural darkness prevailed 
in Europe and New England on May 19, 1780. 
This gloom lasted during the entire day and was 
followed by a night of as dense darkness as that 
which plagued Egypt. Of this supernatural 
darkness, which terrified thousands, and as one 
has said: "Crowded the churches of Europe with 
alarmed multitides, supplicating the mercy of 
Heaven." Herschel, the astronomer, says: "The 
Dark Day in Northern America was one of those 
wonderful phenomena in nature which will al- 
ways be read with interest, but which philosophy 
is at a loss to explain." Judge R. N. Davis says: 
"It was a wonderful dark day, standing almost, 
if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious 
and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind in 
Nature's diversified events during the last cen- 



54 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

tury." Noah Webster wrote of it: "I stood and 
viewed the phenomenon. No satisfactory cause 
has been asigned." God has said, however: "The 
sun shall be darkened before the great and terri- 
ble day of the Lord come;" and, though this may 
not be the exact event referred to, yet it shows 
how easily God can "darken the sun." This day 
was so dark and ominous that the legislature of 
Connecticut, then in session, adjourned, being 
unable to transact business. The Connecticut 
Journal, May 22, 1780, said: "The greatest darkness 
was equal to what is commonly called candle 
lighting" in the evening. The apearance was in- 
deed uncommon and the cause unknown." The 
reader will notice that it is nowhere said in God's 
word that the sun or moon will be destroyed or 
become extinct, but rather, it is said, they "with- 
hold their light," and "are darkened," "appear 
as blood," etc. The night following the dark day 
referred to, the moon, which had reached its full 
on the previous day, was as if extinct, and a 
darkness more intense than was ever before 
known settled over the land. 

An officer in the United States army, writing 
to the Philadelphia Enquirer from Leaven- 
worth, March 20, 1893, said: "On the 14th of 
February we had the most remarkable phenom- 
enon I ever heard of. At 3 A. M., the moon, 
which had been obscured by a cloud, burst forth 
a deep blood red color, with a black cross of 
equal proportions over its face." Though Eng- 
lish scientists declare that "No law of refrac- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 55 

tion can in any way explain this extraordinary 
phenomenon;" and, Dr. Foster pronounces it: 
•'Wholly inexplicable by any law of natural phi- 
losophy," yet in the present century alone, the 
moon's total eclipses by her passages through the 
earth's shadow, impart to her strange lurid 
colors which astonish the beholder. That of 
March 19, 1848, is described by Mr. Walker as 
resembling "The glowing, red heat of a furnace, 
or a deep red." That of February 27, 1848, is de- 
scribed by astronomers as being of "a redish 
brown;" that of June 1, 1863, is said by Mr. Glai- 
sher, of Greenwich, to look "like fire smoldering 
into ashes." We concur fully in the assertion of 
the commentators, Fausett and Brown, in their 
comments on Joel ii, 31: "Such shall probably 
occur in a more apalling degree before the final 
destruction of an ungodly world." 

The sun is scientifically stated as being a globe 
of tumultuous flames 852,584 miles in diameter, its 
bulk being 1,253,000 times greater than the earth, 
and to effect the earth with a force 316,000 times 
greater than the earth's own force. It is also 
said to turn upon its own axis once in twenty-five 
days, and to be composed of flaming gases and 
burning metals. By the aid of the spectroscope, 
astronomers discover red flames or tongues of 
fire protruding from the solar orb, hundreds of 
thousands of miles into the gaseous atmosphere 
that surrounds him. It spots upon the face of 
this mighty ball had an existence, they surely 
had no history until the seventeenth century; but 



56 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

since then, they have been gazed at in dismay by 
thousands, and are made the careful study of the 
thoughtful. In 1779, Sir William Herschel saw 
one 50,000 miles in diameter; nevertheless writes 
Mr. D. T. Taylor in "The Great Consummation," 
page 327, "In all the eighteenth century no scien- 
tist expressed alarm for the sun's fixity or safety. 
Not so to-day. * * * * It was from the year 
1859 and onward that the spots commenced to at- 
tract wondering attention, and astronomers began 
to behold the sun with awe and to express fears 
of its stability." In 1839, Capt. Davis had seen 
one spot 187,000 miles in length, which was at 
that time the largest ever seen. 

"On September 1, 1859, two astronomers in Eng- 
land, at different stations, while watching sun 
spots, were startled to behold the facula on the 
spot edge instantly flash into an unprecedented 
and intense brilliancy, and in five minutes to 
move over the sun's disk, a distance of 34,000 
miles. Presto! Then a magnetic storm began 
on earth. The needle became powerfully ex- 
cited, the Northern and Southern Auroras flashed 
with rare splendor, the telegraph wires were 
burdened with electricity, and the entire globe 
thrilled and throbbed under the influence of the 
strange energy. The sun was in commotion. 
Telegraph machinery was set on fire and burned 
out, and the pen of the instrument was followed 
by a flame, and its characters traced in fire. Men 
were astonished in all the realms of science. The 
instant motion, the explosion, the varying lights, 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 57 

the tumult in the sun, all suggested change! It 
was days before the mysterious solar storm sub- 
sided; then the earth, which hung so immediately 
in the sun's grasp, lay quiet again. But the solar 
eruption was a new thing and a mystery to all. 

In 1869 and 1870, the minimum period of spots 
having passed, the sun was again in ebullition 
and strewn with thick, dark spots. Huggins, of 
England, saw one spot move quickly over its 
face, a distance of 100,000 miles, in one second. 
A single spot was seen in May, 1870, having an 
area of 320,000,000 square miles. In October one 
group of 200,000,000 square miles was observed to 
stretch across the solar disc, one-fourth of its 
diameter. In February a group of spots seen by 
English observers had an area of 1,458,000,000 
miles, and in September, Prof. Langley, in this 
country, witnessed at one time hundreds of spots, 
the area of but one of them being computed to 
be 2,000,000,000 square miles. In November, 
1870, the Evening Post, of New York City, re- 
ported three contiguous spots, whose area was 
8,649,000,000 square miles. The sun passed 
through remarkable changes. There were seen 
cyclones and black cavities upon it, all declared 
to be of unusual magnitude. With one spot a 
hundred times larger than the entire surface of 
our globe, sun changing, and nature quivering in 
its witnessing for God. Prof. E. Colbert in 'The 
Western Monthly,' August, 1870, in tones of 
alarm, wrote: 'The present year, though pre- 
viously indicated as one of maximum, is marked 



58 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

by the appearance of an extraordinary number of 
spots, which have no parallel in number and 
magnitude within the space of a hundred years.' 
It is well known that the following year, 1871, 
was styled by Victor Hugo and others, 'The 
black and terrible year.' " 

It was was a terrible year for our earth. The 
mighty fires of that year, fed by electric influ- 
ences, consumed the city of Chicago, at a loss of 
$180,000,000; took an $80,000,000 slice off Boston, 
and the great Western States had forest and 
prairie fires, hundreds of miles in extent, in 
which 2,500 persons are said to have perished 
and $100,000,000 worth of property to have been 
destroyed. Again, on February 4, 1872, a mar- 
velous Aurora was apparent, and electric in- 
fluences pervaded the atmosphere until all the 
telegraph lines of the earth were affected and the 
ocean cable could not be worked by battery. 
The needle in the compass became wild and use- 
less, and to quote D. T. Taylor: "The mystic fires, 
were all colors, shapes and hues, were now seen 
by men living in all parts of the earth." Harper 
said: "Not only was this Aurora one of the most 
remarkable of recent years because of the wide 
extent of its visibility, but it seems to have been 
attended with electrical disturbances that are as 
yet unparalleled in the annals of science for their 
intensity, if not for their duration and geological 
extent." — Magazine, June, 1873. In June of the 
same year, the Italian astronomer, Tachini, be- 
held the entire face of the sun overspread with 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 59 

burning vapors of magnesium, a thing which 
had never been seen before. Astronomers were 
startled in the years 1869 and 1870 to behold a 
column of electric fire shooting out of the sun's 
heated equatorial regions toward our earth, which 
advanced, receded and advanced again in a 
threatening manner, as if it would lick up our 
globe. This enormous tongue reached farther 
and farther across the gulf of 92,000,000 miles 
which separated us from its fiery source. It 
seemed to impart a new and glowing light to 
every planet in the solar system. 

Astronomers Enis and Langley stated that this 
mysterious column extended ten to fourteen mill- 
ions, and the latter thinks at times, in thinner 
form, thirty to forty millions of miles toward our 
earth. This column of supposed magnetic fire 
and the boiling coruscations of the solar orb, to 
gether with the increased number of monster sun 
spots and the apparent changes in its form, 
luster and extent, prove our sun to be but a per- 
ishable, variable star. The New York Sun, May 
23,' 1870, said: "The sun is beginning to be an 
object of great anxiety to many scientific men, 
the spots assuming of late an appearance which 
astonishes astronomers, and is calculated to 
alarm that class which fancies that it can detect 
portents of the future in the heavens." Can the 
people of God, with the prophecies of Christ and 
the apostles thus being turned into history before 
their eyes, remain unmoved by the sight? But 
there are infinite numbers of such phenomena 



60 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

lately. Prof. C. A. Young, at Hanover, N. H. , wit- 
nessed the most astounding solar explosion ever 
recorded, October 7, 1880. He saw a burst of flam- 
ing hydrogen shoot up from the sun's face to the 
height of 60,000 miles at the speed of 300 miles 
per second, and at a little past noon it rose to an 
altitude of 350,000 miles, when suddenly it disap- 
peared. Immediately after the earth was visibly 
affected by subtle magnetic influences. Langley 
saw on November 16, 1882, an enormous sun spot 
that covered 2,200,000,000 square miles, and the 
same awful sight was seen at Greenwich, Eng- 
land, and there calculated to cover 2,600,000,000 
miles. But time and space would fail me to tell 
of the marvelous signs in the sun which lately 
bewilder our leading scientists. But ere leaving 
this subject, let me state that it is beginning to be 
apparent that the ever-increasing number of 
earthquakes, cyclones, whirlwinds, water-spouts, 
hot winds, tidal waves, etc., have these solar dis- 
turbances for a main, if not, the only cause of 
their existence. 

But in looking further for the ominous fore- 
runners of Christ's coming, the stars give us much 
food for hope. He speaks of the stars of the 
heavens falling into the earth "like as a fig tree 
casteth her untimely figs." As one has said: "A 
single star heralded Christ's first appearing, mill- 
ions will announce His second advent." The first 
meteoric display called a "star shower" occurred 
November 12, 1799, over an area of 11,000,000 
square miles of earth. A French scientist wrote : 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 61 

u There was not a space of the firmament equal to 
three diameters of the moon that was not filled at 
every instant with bolides and falling stars." 
The showers ot 1832 and 1833 were equal in ex- 
tent, and can be attested to by many living" wit- 
nesses, while the historic records of them are 
abundant. The earth, it is said, seemed to be 
plowing* her way through a vast stream of little 
worlds. In 1832, the showers seemed to be en- 
tirely European. It reached our shores in all its 
fascinating grandeur November 12, 1833. The 
inhabitants of all North America witnessed the 
display of celestial fire-works which burst unex- 
pectedly upon them, and was as mysterious to 
our savants as to our peasants. Again, the star 
showers of 1866 and 1868 appeared as their pre- 
decessors, unheralded and awful, equaling* the 
former in their teriffic grandeur. Europeans and 
Asiatics largely, beheld this display, as the 
globe's eastern hemisphere was turned at night 
that year toward the belt of flashing stars, which 
fell in millions at the Mediteranean, North 
Africa, Turkey, the Holy Land and Europe. Queen 
Victoria, it is said, was awakened from her sleep 
and gazed for hours on these harbingers of a 
mightier monarch than ever sat in her royal 
chair. Prom Chili, in South America, 6,000 
miles northward, this awful sight was witnessed 
by thousands. Maine, Mexico, and the Sandwich 
Islands, also witnessed it. 

It is very apparent that the earth accomplishes a 
mighty revolution that brings her to this meteoric 



62 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

belt at stated intervals of thirty-three or thirty- 
four years. From 1799, the first appearance, to 
1833, and again in 1866 and 1868, is seen to be an 
interval of thirty-three years each time. Many 
suppose that the earth will plunge into the ring 
of burning meteors again in 1899 or 1900. Should 
she do so, it will be but a further proof of the ful- 
fillment of the divine prediction, that the stars 
shall fall into the earth, which has even now, 
in part, at least, been fulfilled. Science has as 
yet given no satisfactory explanation of these 
portentious appearances, and even should she 
find a natural cause for all of them, it would 
make them none the less significant; for what 
is nature, but God's own law? And if He choose 
to display His supernatural omens through nat- 
ural law, does that disannul their miraculous 
character? 

We now ask the sea to witness for our coming 
Lord. In close connection with the solar disturb- 
ances is seen the earthquake, and m as close con- 
nection with the earthquake is heard the thunder- 
ous roar of the ocean tidal wave. Professor M. 
Ponton, P. R. S. E., writes: "One of the most in- 
teresting of earthquake phenomena is the great 
sea waves which roll in upon the land with such 
destructive force. * * * The sea first retires 
a long way from the beach, and then returns in a 
mighty wave of great height, which rises up far 
beyond the highest tide mark, sweeping every- 
thing before it. The greatest sea waves are pro- 
duced when the center of disturbance is near the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 63 

shore." These tidal waves are said to be caused 
by submarine earthquakes. The unnatural earth 
movement swells the sea and propels huge 
crested waves at a fearful speed thousands of 
miles across the face of the deep, with an ominous 
roaring sound. These devastating, roaring, tidal 
waves, which are possibly but the fruit of the 
earthquake, if not produced by the same solar 
eruptions as itself, as they are always co-existent 
with it, are becoming more frequent in propor- 
tion to the frequency of earthquakes. At the de- 
struction of Port-au-Prince in 1770, "The great 
sea waves swept over the country to a distance 
of a league and a half from the shore." On the 
coast of Peru the sea has risen through subma- 
rine agitations to the height of eighty feet, and 
at Java over a hundred feet. And these mighty 
waves swept the shore for thousands of miles. 
"At Arica, in August, 1868, two ships, the Peru- 
vian corvette, America, and the United States 
double-ender, Wateree, were carried on a wave, 
fifty feet high, nearly half a mile beyond a railroad 
and there left stranded high and dry." — The 
Great Consummation, page 288. In the volcanic 
convulsions at Java, 1883, the sea rose to a per- 
pendicular height of 135 feet, submerging all the 
adjacent lands. On contemplating these enor- 
mous waves it is no marvel that the sea "roars." 
At the time that the earthquake destroyed the 
city of Semoda, Japan, in 1854, the sea was 
greatly disturbed, and a mighty wave started 
that dashed on the shores of California in twelve 



64 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

and a half hours, the distance being 4,500 miles. 
This mighty wave traveled 360 miles per hour, 
and the crest was still eighteen feet high on reach- 
ing its destination, and as wave followed wave, 
the distance from crest to crest was 150 miles. 
Again, in the convulsions of Chili and Peru, in 
August, 1868, a mighty wave was started that in 
fourteen hours reached California, 4,000 miles 
distant, and rolled on to the coast of Alaska at a 
speed of 300 miles per hour. The waves when 
starting were between sixty and eighty feet high, 
and reached the Sandwich Islands, a distance of 
6,300 miles, in twelve hours, their crests being 
still thirty-six feet high. This gave them a rate 
of speed of 525 miles per hour. — D. T. Taylor. 
Again, on May 10, 1877, unfortunate Peru was 
visited by an earthquake, and a mighty wall of 
water w T as started that deluged her shores and 
made itself felt across the Pacific ocean. It 
reached the Sandwich Islands in thirteen and a 
half hours, rolling at the enormous speed of 466 
miles per hour. Surely the seas' waves are roar- 
ing and calling rebel man to repentance, and if 
he will not quake before his creator, inanimate 
creation will. 

O, dear reader, do not be deceived by the scien- 
tific ignoramuses, the learned egotists of this day 
who endeavor to settle the public agitation on 
these questions by accounting for these facts on 
natural principles, as though God did not control 
those natural principles. No occurrence in nature, 
no matter how strange, would arouse some of 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 65 

these; they are unteachable, and will awaken 
when too late. These dreamers may assert that 
these thing's are no more numerous than form- 
erly, but that our modes of* communication and 
circulation of news are so much more perfect, ex- 
peditious and far-reaching", that we hear of them 
more fully. Though there is some truth in this 
statement, there is much sophistry and dangerous 
doctrine hidden here. God has made no more 
mistake in saying* there will be ' 'famines and pes- 
tilences," than He did in saying* there shall be 
earthquakes as forerunners of His appearing. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Evangelist Luke records the fact that 
Jesus in describing the approaching end, gives as 
one of the last signs of its approach that there 
should be "upon the earth distress of nations 
with perplexity, * * * and men's hearts fail- 
ing them for fear." This divine prediction of 
national "distress," "perplexity," and "heart- 
failure," is at present having a literal and fearful 
fulfillment from various standpoints. There is 
not one of the great nations of the earth which is 
not at present agitated and anathematized by 
some peculiar "distress." This is seen from the 
fact that nearly four billions of dollars is paid 
out annually by the nations of the earth for war 
expenses, while less than fifteen million is spent 
for all the missions of Christendom. Looked at 
from this fact do not the nations seem indeed to be 
"distressed?" Russia has her nihilism, France her 
communism, Austria, England, Germany, America 
are distressed with anarchy, openly expressed and 
under plausible guises. International dissatis- 
faction and disruption threaten to destroy some 
of these more powerful nations. In fact, the 
whole system of popular government is threat- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 67 

ened with complete annihilation by this rising- 
tide of lawlessness and misrule. This anarchistic 
spirit, which is the peculiar satanic fallacy of the 
times, is fast spreading, and to our astonish- 
ment is rapidly making converts among the 
learned, wealthy and influential of the nations, 
and especially in our own America. This is the 
fruit of the unwise, illegal, or vicious legislation 
of the past, both in church and state, especially 
the latter. The laboring classes are awakening. 
The illiterate masses are being aroused to the 
fact that many of the laws that they have been 
honoring have principles involved that tend to 
run the wealth of the wealth-producer into the 
hands of the plutocrats, or money-kings of the 
land. Many of the governmental enactments of 
the past are seen by the laboring classes to tend 
toward their enslavement to their moneyed rulers. 
Hence, not only this swinging to the other ex- 
treme and desire to completely abolish the gov- 
ernments, but also a multiplicity of secret socie- 
ties, trade unions, and banding together of disaf- 
fected factions have taken place, and are rapidly 
increasing, till this nation, and all the most en- 
lightened nations of the earth, are indeed "Dis- 
tressed" at the ominous spectacle presented. Law 
is defeated by these secret combines among both 
monopolists and laborers, and justice is outraged; 
and, through the prevalence of this secret leaven 
(among even the military and national troops, 
who honor the oath of their secret fraternities 
more than their allegiance to their sovereign and 



68 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

country), the power of kings, emperors and pres- 
idents is defied, and national distress is the re- 
sult. This was seen to be fearfully true in the 
fall of 1894, during the Pullman stike in Chicago, 
and various other places over the country, when 
not only the State, but the National troops, had 
to be called out, and much blood, money and 
property was the price of the peace and perpe 
tuity of the nation. This had been preceded only 
a few weeks by a similar distressing and danger- 
ous strike among the combined coal-diggers and 
coke-burners of the nation. This harrassing oc- 
currence not only paralyzed the business of the 
country for the time being, but the sanguinary 
affair between the miners, the hired guards and 
the soldiers in Colorado, Tennessee, Indiana, 
Ohio and Pennsylvania, especially the latter 
State, was not only "distressing," but a lasting 
disgrace on our enlightened nation, and none 
need suppose that the lull in active hostilities 
between labor and capital is the result of a per- 
manent settlement of their differences. The out- 
raged laboring classes, who have long been 
robbed by the gigantic syndicates, trusts, boards 
of trade, and secret combines of the money 
power, under the protection of the law, are 
awakening to the facts in the case. This enor- 
mous body of people, the most colossal in the na- 
tion, has been captured by the money kings, like 
the giant judge of Israel by the Philistines; they 
have also like him, been robbed of their eyes by 
their captors and set to grinding in the prison 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 69 

mills of the plutocrats. The ignorance of the 
masses has been their blindness, and their blind- 
ness has been their ruin. But they are acquaint- 
ing themselves with the science of government, 
as knowledge increases. This knowledge is 
opening their prison-houses, and like Sampson, 
they are feeling for the pillars of the temple, and 
woe to this time-honored, plutocratic edifice if 
some one but leads this blind giant to the place 
he seeks. We fear the result will be fully as 
disastrous as the Philistine catastrophe, when 
both captors and captive were destroyed at the 
same stroke. It does appear, indeed, as if the an- 
archistic modes of governmental reform that are 
fast growing popular in the most enlightened 
nations threaten not to purify the governments so 
much as to destroy them entirely. This nation, 
England, and many of the nations of Europe, 
which are almost ready to break down with the 
weight of their own wickedness, instead of getting 
at the root of this matter, and by wise legisla- 
tion, endeavoring to remove the cause of this 
state of affairs and bring about a better social 
order, are trying to coerce the toiling masses into 
submission by the force of arms. "Distress of 
nations" must be the consequence of such a 
tyrannical course. Truth must triumph, right 
must reign, though falsehood and error be wiped 
out in a sea of tears and blood. Our government 
and the money-kings recognize the fact that the 
crushed, and in many places, starving, dissatified 
laborers, are but gathering force for a mightier 



70 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

onslaught on their moneyed masters, and the gov- 
ernment — doubtless under the money influence — 
is fast preparing for this expected cataclysm. A 
doubling of the national army is now talked of, 
and this additional force is to be stationed along 
the trunk lines of railroads; also, cannons are be- 
ing made to operate on the gatling gun prin- 
ciple from moving steel-clad railroad trains. 
These improved murder machines are not calcu- 
lated to be used against a foreign foe, for for- 
eign foes are not generally to be reached along 
our railroad lines, but at our seaports. These 
machines are to heartlessly settle an agitation 
which is the fruit of unwise, or corrupt legislation. 
This, in peaceful, Christian America. 

Another feature of our national distress is seen 
in the fact that nearly three million of hard work 
ing, though at present, idle men form tramping 
armies of beggars over the country, and many of 
these poor victims are so starved and needy that 
-they have dared constables, sheriffs, governors, 
and militia, and with an audacity almost incredi- 
ble, have wilfully captured railroad trains and 
rushed over the country in the face of sure death 
or incarceration. They were panic-stricken, in- 
deed, like cattle on a stampede. And all can see 
that we are only enjoying a lull in this mighty 
storm. It must soon rise with redoubled force, 
for the causes are all in full operation. 

Still another feature of our national distress is 
seen in the fact that many starve to death, while 
our corn-cribs, granaries and store-houses burst 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 71 

out with supplies, which are wasting* for want of 
consumption. Money, the medium of exchange, 
is wanting*. It has largely been called into the 
coffers ot the few millionaire money-kings, who 
own the debts of the country, that a panic may 
be the result. Then when these legal highway- 
men have gorged themselves with property at 
panic prices, they will begin again to discount 
notes and lend out money until it is plentiful in 
the country, and times are good and prices are 
boomed; then they sell this almost stolen prop- 
erty at "boomed" prices, and thus swell the 
yellow stream into their blood-stained coffers. 
This is a fearful feature of not only our own 
national distress, but is also a marked feature of 
European embarrassment. Nearly all the neces- 
saries of life have their respective trusts, rings 
Or combines to pass through. These men so 
manipulate the wires as to control the entire 
supply, giving or withholding at their pleasure 
to break or make prices, and often making the 
poor consumer pay several times their value for 
the necessaries of life. On the unchristian prin- 
ciple embodied in the proverb, that "Competition 
is the life of trade," the larger and more wealthy 
concerns of the land have been driving the 
smaller ones out of existence, till we are threat- 
ened with the awful fate of having only a few 
gigantic corporations which will control each 
individual commodity, cloth, lumber, sugar, meat, 
iron, wool, coal, grain, flour, etc., each of these 
massive incorporations having branch concerns 



72 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

in all the towns of the country. This centraliza- 
tion of any commodity in the hands of a few 
gives them the power to fleece the unfortunate 
consumer as these commodities become necessi- 
ties. The lesser concerns, or retail dealers, are 
fast being driven out of the business by the 
larger ones lowering the prices till the other is 
bankrupt, and then buying them out and raising 
the prices to double the real worth to make up 
for the loss endured and swell their millions. 
On all the lines of internal commerce this princi- 
ple is in full operation. These wealthy and dan- 
gerous concerns see to it that class legislation in 
their favor is constantly going on. The result is 
the rapid centralization of the nation's wealth in 
the hands of a few and the pauperization of the 
millions. Already over one-half of the nation's 
wealth is centered in the hands of less than 
forty thousand individuals out of the sixty-seven 
million. How does this appear for brotherly 
equality in Christian America? A recent report 
in an English journal gives a long list of the 
names of American millionaires and the amount 
of money owned by them. It reveals the secret 
of our awful money famine : ' ' J. D. Rockefeller, 
$125,000,000; W. W. Astor, $120,000,000; J. Gould 
estate, $110,000,000; Russell Sage, 90,000,000; 
C. Vanderbilt, $80,000,000; W. K. Vanderbilt, 
$75,000,000," etc., until the enormous sum of $54,- 
000,000,000 is seen to be centered in the hands of 
about fifty persons, and much of it entirely out of 
circulation. 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 73 

Again, as to the land of this country, it also is 
rapidly centralizing in a few hands. It is said 
that $21,000,000 acres of American land is owned 
by foreign syndicates. The Standard Oil com- 
pany is said also to own 1,000,000 acres. Mr. 
Diston, of Pennsylvania, is said to own 4,000,000 
acres, and the railroads of this country are said 
to own 211,000,000 acres. These gigantic figures 
are equalled in their enormity only by the awful 
plunder of the masses by their present owners. 
This is a fearful feature of the perilous times of 
these last days. The corruption and vice that 
are thus sanctioned and augmented give rise to 
much crime in other forms, such as forgery, lar- 
ceny, robbery of all kinds, even to the robbing of 
banks and flying express trains. Again, this 
latter form of wickedness encourages and em- 
boldens others to acts of butchery and vice to 
such an extent that the newspapers are never read 
without a shudder, as column after column of 
horrible crimes appear. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The perilous times of these days are seen also in 
the rapidity with which wickedness increases, es- 
pecially in our large cities. By consulting the 
daily newspapers of Chicago and other cities it 
will be seen that they have become almost a den 
of thieves. Few who have not visited the larger 
cities would believe the facts if stated. No one 
is safe in the streets of Chicago after night. At 
any moment one may be held up in the main 
streets, his pockets rifled of their contents by 
two or three ruffians, while his body is left al- 
most senseless by a sand-bag or billy, that they 
may have the more time to escape. This open 
highway robbery and secret theft and pocket - 
picking is carried on both day and night, until 
business men do not feel safe on the streets with 
money about their persons; while women or inex- 
perienced persons are in jeopardy on the streets 
even in broad daylight. The papers teem with 
accounts of men having their arms seized from 
behind and their mouths covered with a man's 
hand, while their pockets are rifled by another, 
and this is often done in the large crowds on the 
leading streets, and even in daylight. It has 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 75 

come to such a pass that if a man wants to walk 
home alone after dark with any degree of safety 
he must take the middle of the street where he 
can see both ways so as not to be suddenly over 
powered by some lurking 1 foe. Also the secret 
plots and deep, dark chicanery that are resorted 
to to draw money from the unwary would fill a 
volume. As numerous as indescribable are the 
tricks of the gamblers and harlots that literally 
swarm in some sections of the city; also, the 
tricks of the ward politicians, and even the police 
and magistrates, clear up to the city's highest 
officers. Policemen receive fees for neglecting 
their duty and winking at crime. Thugs and ruf- 
fians are paid for intimidating and driving honest 
voters from the polls and from an investigation 
of their dark doings. Aldermen receive fees 
for lobbying the laws in favor of rich corpora 
tions. Assessors are bribed for assessing massive 
mansions and mammoth manufacturing* plants 
at one-tenth of their real worth. Head officials 
are paid for loosening up on the liquor laws, 
health laws, etc. In the city papers lately there 
was an account of two police magistrates ar- 
rested for the crime of having at different times 
caused the arrest of innocent persons, by a con- 
stable who worked in union with them. The vic- 
tims were taken into neighboring* saloons and 
tried, after a temporary and private police court 
had been constructed. False witnesses were 
drawn from the saloon element, and the poor 
victims were found guilty and fined, which fines 



76 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

and court costs, thus diabolically extorted, were 
divided among- these outragers of justice. And 
these and many similar occurrences are taking 
place constantly. When city officials, as the Bi- 
ble says; "Each seek their gain from their quar- 
ter," and sell their integrity and the city's wealth 
for bribes, it is no wonder that lately the Mayor 
said Chicago is a pauper. He saw the treasury 
was depleted, the taxation laws were inade- 
quate, and the city almost hopelesly swamped 
under a mountain of debt and deluged with a 
flood of vice. And this is but a fair sample of 
all our larger cities. And as the large cities are 
spewing out hordes of thieves, robbers, harlots, 
murderers, etc. , on the smaller towns and country 
communities, is it any wonder that over the 
country generally we see perilous times? Surely, 
as the divine prediction has it, "In the last days 
perilous times shall come." 

Another mark of national distress and perilous 
times is seen in the insidious wiles, intrigues, 
manipulations of popery in this country and Eng- 
land, and in several of the other countries of 
Europe. Research need not be very thorough 
on the part of any one to discover that both 
America and England are sleeping on the verge 
of a vast Vesuvius which is ready to burst out in 
flaming eruption and fill the land with tears and 
blood. Rome has always loved to ride the scarlet 
beast of civil power, and, indeed, civil power in 
Rome's hands has always been scarlet (sinful) 
and beastly enough. In Revelations, chapter 18, 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 77 

a prophecy, which all orthodox commentators 
agree refers to Rome, has been fully verified. 
God says: "She is fallen and become the habita- 
tion of devils and the hold of every foul spirit 
and a cage of every foul and hateful bird. * * 
* For all nations have drunk of the wine 
of her fornication, and the kings of the earth 
have committed fornication with her." Fornica- 
tion here means illicit connection of any kind, 
and surely the kings and corrupt politicians of 
earth have unlawful connection with Rome, until 
the nations are reeling" drunk on the wine of her 
fornication, that is, they have sold their princi- 
ples of righteousness and manhood for papal 
votes and influence. The artful machinations of 
Rome in our American politics is fearful, indeed. 
The subjects of the pope — enslaved by the heresy 
that he has the power to damn their souls in hell 
fire and deliver them therefrom at will, and by 
the fear that he will use this power against them 
should they refuse to keep his mandates, — throw 
their entire force with either political party that 
he may dictate. The pope, in turn through his 
generals in this country, the bishops, archbishops 
and cardinals, sells their entire vote to the polit- 
ical party that bids tha highest. Thus they 
always stand in well with the ruling political 
party, as the solid Roman vote always elects 
the party to which it is given. This gives these 
intriguers the power to manipulate the wires and 
finger the strings of government so perfectly in 
this country that nearly every office, down to the 



78 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

police and street sweepers, are held by papists. 
Should protestant politicians feel disposed to ob- 
ject to this, a paralyzing" menace is held over their 
heads as next election day is looked forward to. 
Our American institutions are threatened with 
complete extinction by these deluded dupes of 
the pope. Their vicious opposition to our public 
schools is an instance of this. These treason- 
breeding- parochial schools, famous for their in- 
famy, which are nurseries for the convent, the 
stage, the penitentiary and the gallows (as the 
prison records of the country show seven- tenths 
of the crime of the land to be committed by 
Romanists, and yet their number is only one -fifth 
that of the protestant population), are often 
taught by women calling themselves "Mother Su- 
perior," (mothers without husbands they acknowl- 
edge themselves to be), and by men calling them- 
selves "Fathers," (and we realize that they de- 
serve the appellation, even though they are un- 
married), who, if called upon to pass an examina- 
tion before an enlightened committee, would 
often be found too grossly ignorant, especially in 
history and science, to teach infants. These 
schools are not in the strictest sense branches of 
an educational system, but rather makeshifts to 
keep the people in ignorance by avoiding our 
compulsory education laws. The pope knows 
that the existence of his satanic system depends 
on his keeping the people in ignorance. The 
ignorance of the people is the strength and life 
of popery. 



& 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 79 

Innocent children are taught in these schools 
that our glorious constitution is damnable, our 
national founders were heretics, and that the 
pope has power to make void all our laws and 
absolve his subjects from eternal punishment 
should they break them, even to the slaying of 
protestant heretics. They are taught also that 
as a protestant nation we have forfeited our 
power to govern ourselves, and that our protest- 
ant marriages are illegal and our children ille- 
gitimate. The truth of these statements can be 
verified by a glance through Roman theology, 
and can be denied by no honest, learned papist. 
These hordes of superstitious dupes, who cannot 
in fact be American citizens, as they have laid 
their personality at the feet of the pope, and 
forestalled their oath of allegiance to our gov- 
ernment by an oath of allegiance to the pope on 
pain of eternal damnation, are fast gaining con- 
trol of our government in all its branches, es- 
pecially the army and navy. 

The manipulations of the South before the war 
in getting control of the army and its resources 
and supplies, seems to have been forgotten by 
us. The pilot house, cabin and power room of 
our ship of state is now almost completely in the 
hands of the worshipers of the beast. Uncle 
Sam is little more than a passenger, while the 
tiaraed despot on the Tiber is really in command. 
This insidious foe which fathers the diabolical 
liquor business, and augments and makes capital 
of all the dissatisfied factions of the land, the 



80 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

abused laborers, the strikers, the lesser political 
rings, and the anarchistic elements, etc., has long* 
been, and is still, fast drilling and acquainting 
with the science of war, the youth of his polit- 
ical system, called a church. The government, 
and the army, are so far in their hands now that if 
they could bring sufficient force to bear on our 
legislators to induce them to destroy our protest- 
ant institutions and lift popery into public su- 
premacy — and we, as protestants, should object 
to such legislation — the laws of the land and the 
army and n&vy could all be turned against us by 
them, and we, as protestants, would appear as 
the guilty parties rather than the real Roman 
culprits. In fact, our government by yeilding to 
papal intrigue, has like one of old, been building 
a gallows for another in the increase and im- 
provement of our army and navy, and will as- 
suredly hang itself higher than Haman thereon 
unless a reform is soon inaugurated! Rome is 
actuated now by the same spirit that she mani- 
fested in France on St. Bartholomew's day, or at 
the Irish or Mexican massacres. Prostestants 
would do well to awake and investigate these 
facts. 

Another phase of national distress is being 
written in tears and blood by the brewers and 
distillers of the earth. This diabolical traffic, 
which has not one redeeming quality, is writing 
its history on the graves of its victims at the 
rate of millions each year, beside the millions 
more maimed, robbed, maddened, ruined, and 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 81 

worse than murdered, by it annually. And this 
foul power shall yet, as in the past, carve that 
accursed history on the tombstones of slaugh- 
tered nations. "Who can conceive the amount of 
death and crime and want and woe caused by the 
consumption in one year in this world of 4,500,- 
000,000 imperial gallons of beer alone, which was 
brewed in 1893, as statistics show. Stop and 
think, dear reader, of these gigantic figures. Al- 
lowing three feet for each barrel, this would make 
a row of beer barrels touching each other, 50,000 
miles long, or twice around the world. Think of 
this monstrous stream of liquid misery. Surely, 
the brewers of the earth can sing: " We'll girdle 
the globe with damnation," and complete the 
task every six months. America's national drink 
bill is $700,000,000, while the cost of our nation's 
publishing houses is only $10,000,000. The world's 
drink bill for ten years has been carefully esti- 
mated at $4,000,405,234. Allowing six inches to 
each one -dollar bill, laid end to end, this would 
make a band over 378,826 miles in length, or fifteen 
times around the earth. In return for this huge 
sum of money, what do the nations receive? 
Murder, theft, incendiarism, pauperism, insanity, 
suicide, and general wickedness, as widespread 
and devastating as the plagues of Egypt. God 
has labelled their receipts "distress of nations." 
And as this dragon power is seen to be assuming 
such colossal proportions so rapidly of late, who 
can doubt the outcome? Surely, "In the last 
days perilous times shall come," and there shall 



82 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

be "distress of nations with perplexity." Every 
newspaper with its teeming revelations of in- 
trigue, outrage and bloodshed testifies of "peril- 
ous times." Every nation with its intestinal 
strife, disruption and danger of dissolution, testi- 
fies of "distress of nations." There is added to 
this text on distress of nations, the words "with 
perplexity and men's hearts failing them for fear 
and for looking for those things that are coming on 
the earth." This is an exact description of affairs 
as they are now. Perplexity sits deep and dense 
on the minds of the legislators especially. This 
system of government is tried, and then that, 
this policy and then that, each bringing more 
discontent and disaster than the preceding one, 
until lawmakers are thrown into confusion and 
"perplexity" as they see every measure of gov- 
ernment fail and their best concerted schemes 
come to naught, and "distress of nations" is the 
result in part, and "men's hearts failing them for 
fear and for looking for those things that are 
coming on the earth," fill up the measure. 

That this latter state of affairs exists to-day 
none can deny. Everywhere, and by all classes, is 
manifested a spirit of unrest and expectation of 
some mighty cataclysm, while wars and rumors 
of wars are heard of on every side. Nearly all 
with whom you talk, saint and sinner alike, seem 
to instinctively teel an indefinable dread of com- 
ing trouble, of pending disaster, which they can- 
not describe, and know not how to avoid. Reader, 
has your heart never heard this mysterious voice 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 83 

or felt this vague dread of coming woe? Ac- 
quaintance with Christ alone will calm your 
emotions and prepare you for the future, but it 
cannot abate but rather strengthen your convic- 
tions on this point. 



CHAPTER V. 

Another remarkable instance is found in the 
fact that though the nations of the earth are 
thrown into distress and perplexity over their de- 
pleted treasuries and unsatisfactory financial sys- 
tems, the Jewish people, who are not thus bored 
with national responsibilities, are fast getting 
hold of much of the world's wealth. Consider 
this people who, with their sympathisers, largely 
own the debts of the world and are the money- 
lenders of the nations, into whose hands the gold 
of the earth is fast running, in spite of all the ad- 
vance thought and political schemes of the na- 
tions. Their very existence is a miracle. Scat- 
tered over every clime and mingled among all 
peoples, they adapt themselves to all condi- 
tions, and instead of descending to the more 
laborious occupations, they hold the commercial 
interests of the world in their hands. A Jew in his 
poverty will carry a commercial pack almost large 
enough to form a load for a mule before he will 
carry a hod of mortar or wield a pick or a spade. 
Though they are as much the scoff as the miracle 
of nations, yet when the stocks and thumb-screws 
of persecution are inoperative, they show them- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 85 

selves ever capable of springing to pinnacles oi 
honor and responsibility; so much so, that the 
world has been startled with an account of Jo- 
seph's step from the Egyptian prison to the 
throne of Pharaoh, and Daniel's rise from a 
captive slave to be ' 'chief of the governors of 
Babylon," and Disraeli's ascent from a disfran- 
chised surf to the prime ministership of England. 
They are, perhaps, tenfold more numerous than 
in the sunny days of David and Solomon. In 
this, many may think we are mistaken, as their 
number is generally given as less than 12,000,000, 
but we must remember that there are millions of 
Jews who own citizenship in various countries, 
and who do not follow the religious customs 
of their fathers, and are therefore not included in 
the ordinary statistics. And though intermingled 
with all the nations of the earth, yet this people 
are generally distinct from them as in the days of 
their wise king. They are more temperate, 
healthful, hardy and long-lived than any people 
on earth, thanks to their rigid adherance to the 
hygienic and moral codes of their inspired law- 
giver. Statistics show that twenty per cent, of 
Jews live to the age of seventy, while but twelve 
per cent, of Christians do. Their wealth as a 
people is almost incredible, the Croesus of other 
ages are the Rothchilds of to-day. A notable 
instance in connection with their wealth is its 
portable nature. The wealth of the modern 
Jew, unlike that of other people, is not in broad 
acres, towering mansions, extensive railroads, or 



86 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

mighty manufacturing plants, but rather in gold, 
silver and national bonds, that which is portable. 
Thej 7 are living in expectation of being called 
back at any time to the land of their fathers, 
and they keep their wealth in such shape that 
they can transfer it to the promised land at 
once. 

As the last grains of the grist of nations are 
running from the hopper of God's providence 
into the stones of history and the times of the 
Gentiles are almost fulfilled, Providence is appa- 
rantly ordering things so that the wealth of the 
world is running into the coffers of this nomadic 
people. The wisdom of kings, emperors and legis- 
lators cannot hinder it, for it is written that "They 
shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and "spoil 
those that spoiled them." The descendants of 
Abraham will soon be home in their native Judean 
hills, and much Gentile gold must go with them 
when they go, as was the case at the exodus 
when their fathers left Egypt. The Holy City — 
Jerusalem, which it was prophesied would "be 
trodden down of the Gentiles till the times of the 
Gentiles be fulfilled," will soon again be under 
the Mosaic theocracy. The times of the Gentiles are 
almost fulfilled. God has plainly foretold the 
Jews' return to their own land, and His promise 
is about to be verified. Ezekiel 36:24, "For I will 
take you from among the heathen and gather you 
out of all countries and will bring you into your 
own land." This could not mean the return 
from Babylon, for the prophet says not Babylon, 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 87 

but "all countries." If the reader would know for 
what reason they are thus brought back, Ezekiel 
tells us in the remainder of this chapter. It is to 
purge and convert them and bless them in every- 
way, so that it will be said: "This land that was 
desolate is become like the garden of Eden, and 
the waste and desolate and ruined cities are be- 
come fenced and are inhabited." Again, in chap- 
ter 37, verse 21: "Thus saith the Lord God, be- 
hold I will take the children of Israel from 
among the heathen, whither they be gone, and I 
will gather them on every side and gather them 
into their own land." To show that this means a 
gathering which has not yet taken place, the 
following verses of the same chapter declare 
that transactions will take place which have 
never yet been accomplished. Such as the unity 
of the tribes under one king. Judea is not to be 
a nation separate from Israel then, but saith the 
prophet: "I will make them one nation upon the 
mountains of Israel." And again, he continues: 
"neither shall they defile themselves any more 
with their idols nor with their detestable 
things, nor with any of their transgressions." 
Also, that "David (in his Son, Christ) shall be 
their king," and God's covenant of peace with 
them, continues the prophet, "shall be an ever 
lasting covenant. " These promises are surely yet 
future. A vivid and energetic description of 
their dispersion, the preservation of their, na- 
tional identity, and their return to their own 
land is given in a few words by the prophet 



88 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Amos, chapter 9: "For, lo I will command, and I 
will sift the house of Israel among* all nations 
like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not 
the least grain fall upon the earth; * * * 

* * and I will bring again the captivity of 
my people Israel, and the}^ shall build the waste 
cities and inhabit them, * * * * and I will 
plant them upon their own land, and they shall 
be no more pulled out of their land which I have 
given them, saith the Lord thy God." The 
prophecy herein recorded has been fulfilled, and 
the Jews have been sifted among the nations, 
and the promise is about to be fulfilled and the 
descendants of Abraham restored to their own 
land. 

The Turk, as nearly every newspaper declares, 
is fast losing his hold on the Holy Land. In 
fact, as one has stated, "Turkey is dying" for want 
of Turks." The great question for Europen na- 
tions to settle now, is who shall step into the 
shoes of "the sick man?" Who shall occupy the 
throne of the Sultan of Turkey in the future? for 
God has no further use for the nation, and His 
providences are fast wiping it from the earth. 
Turkey has served its purpose as the excluder of 
the Jews from Palestine; but, now that the time 
of "The Restitution of All Things" is at hand, 
the God of destinies has no further use for the 
turbaned despot. And, singular enough, just as 
the pressure of Providence is forcing* the Turk 
to leave Jewry, the same providential pressure is 
forcing the Jew to leave Russia, and an exodus of 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 89 

Jews from Russia to Palestine is the sight that is 
startling" the student of prophecy at present. 
The Russian Jew is thus seen to be the first to re- 
inhabit the "polluted land." Their success will 
be the magnet to draw the dispersed race from 
their weary wanderings among the nations to the 
hills of their ancestors. In confirmation of this 
view we call the reader's attention to the twelfth 
verse of the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, 
"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon 
the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof 
was dried up that the way of the kings of the 
east might be prepared." We will not harrass 
the reader by endeavoring to explain the historic 
incidents referred to by the pouring out of the 
first five vials of divine wrath, as many men 
wiser than we have made them fit such widely 
differing incidents. But as nearly all agree on 
this sixth vial in its general character, we deem 
it best to give it. In the figurative language of 
the Jews, a river or sea was often used to denote 
the people who resided on their shores. In the 
eleventh century the Turkish horsemen flooded 
the entire Greek empire and subdued Constanti- 
nople, its impregnable capital, the queen of the 
east. They settled in myriads along the Eu- 
phrates. In figurative language this Euphratean 
flood, or Turkish jurisdiction and influence, has 
submerged the Holy Land for eight hundred 
years. And because of the Ottoman ownership of 
Constantinople, a noted military stronghold com- 
manding the Bosphorus, and consequently called 



90 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

the "Key of the East," it has had power to shut 
out much of the influences of Christianity and the 
religion of the Jews. The God of destinies has 
through His angelic messenger poured out the vial 
of His wrath on this Euphratean flood, or Turko- 
Mohammedan power, and it is "drying up." Note 
the words ' 'drying up. " Turkey is destined to pass 
from the field of nations as perhaps no other na- 
tion ever passed. It is not to be subjugated to 
another power. It is not to be wiped out at a 
blow, but to pass away like the slow drying up of 
a river. And so since the close of the seven- 
teenth century, when the Turkish empire was at 
its meridian splendor, we find a rapid and un- 
ceasing diminishing in its power. Insurrection, 
secession, disease, famine and pestilence have al- 
most annihilated the nation. Even skeptics have 
acknowedged that a curse rests upon the em- 
pire. The vial of divine wrath has been poured 
out, and the Turk, given over to his own unclean - 
ness, is fast depopulating Turkey. The text 
says that this great river was dried up "that the 
way of the kings of the east might be prepared." 
This goes to prove that though England and 
France combined, endeavor to fill "the sick 
man's" room, and hold Constantinople the Miss- 
tress of the East, thereby gaining all the wealth- 
producing commerce of India and the Mediterra- 
nean, yet Russia and Austria, the kings of the 
East, will so contest their claims that the Euro- 
pean powers will be forced to settle the dispute 
by bestowing Palestine upon its original Abra- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 91 

hamic inhabitant, and Israel's nationality again 
be a fact. The crushing defeats received in the 
Russian and Austrian wars, the ceding of some of 
its territory to its foes; being compelled to grant 
independence to Greece; the almost total loss of 
Egypt; inability to pay even the interest on its 
huge national debts, etc., have long since brought 
Turkey to the verge of the national cemetery. 
The great powers have established a sort of a 
protectorate over Turkey to keep any individual 
nation from engulfing her and gaining Constanti- 
nople. But the late depredations and fearful 
massacres in Turkey are forcing the European 
powers to decide to do something final, as it is 
evident that the turbaned murderers who now 
hold the Holy Land can do so but little longer. 
What would be more natural in this strait when 
Palestine is seeking for an owner and the Jews 
are seeking for a home, and the European powers 
must find an inhabitant for the Holy Land (to 
keep some already strong nation from capturing 
it and gaining the balance of power in the east), 
than that the powers cede Palestine to its real 
owners, the Jews. Surely, it is providential 
rather than accidental that things are come to 
this pass. 

India, as well as Ireland, is likely to be sepa- 
rated from England, at least legislatively, ere 
the coming end arrives, as these countries never 
belonged to Caeser's domain, which many com- 
mentators think will again be formed into the 
original ten republics, into which his kingdom 



92 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

divided, as shadowed forth by the ten horns 
and ten toes of Daniel's images. This number, 
of course, has been elastic, sometimes less, some- 
times more, but always about ten, which is the 
number that begins and ends its existence. 
These are likely to be consolidated into one de- 
mocracy under the Apolyon, who will make 
a noted covenant with the Jews, which will be 
broken after three and one-half years, when he 
will appear in his true character as the anti- 
christ of the scriptures. If this view be correct, 
mighty upheavals may soon take place on the 
continent before Palestine is finally ceded to the 
Jews. In this war prospect the advocates of 
home-rule in Ireland; the democrats of England 
and the boundless Russian empire, find their 
hope. But their victory must of necessity be 
short lived. 

That keen-sighted genius, who for the crime of 
making toys of crowns, thrones and scepters, 
and making menials out of emperors and kings, 
was incarcerated on St. Helena, saw this very 
point, the future ownership of Turke}^. He saw 
it not from a standpoint of prophecy, but from 
the standpoint of his great sagacity, and now 
England, France, Russia, Prussia, and all the 
great powers of Europe are agitated over it as 
the great "Eastern Question." From the exile of 
his wave -washed home he wrote these words 
eighty years ago: "In the natural course of 
things in a few years Turkey must fall to Russia. 

* * * * The powers it would injure and 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 93 

who would oppose it are England, France and 
Austria. Now as to Austria, it will be very easy 
for Russia to engage her assistance by giving her 
Servia and other provinces bordering upon the 
Austrian dominion reaching to Constantinople. 
The only hypothesis that England and Prance 
will ever be allied with sincerity, will be in order 
to prevent this. But even this alliance will not 
avail. France, England and Prussia united can 
not prevent it. Russia and Austria can at any 
time effect it. Once mistress of Constantinople, 
Russia gets all the commerce of the Mediterra- 
nean, becomes a great and naval power, and God 
only knows what may happen." Then he con- 
tinues; "Russia quarrels with England, marches 
off to India an army of 70,000 good soldiers, 
which to Russia is nothing, and 100,000 Canaille, 
Cossacks and others, and England loses India. 
Above all other powers Russia is the most to be 
feared by you (England.) Her soldiers are braver 
than the Austrians, and she has the means of 
raising as many as she pleases. In bravery the 
French and English are the only ones to be com 
pared to them. All this I foresaw. I see into 
futurity farther than others, and I wanted to es- 
establish a barrier against those barbarians by 
re-establishing the kingdom of Poland and put- 
ting Poniatowski at the head of it as king, but 
your imbeciles of ministers would not consent. A 
hundred years hence I shall be praised, and 
Europe, especially England, will lament that I 
did not succeed. When they see the finest coun- 



94 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

tries in Europe overrun by these Northern bar- 
barians, they will say that Napolean was right." 

But whether the fears of the mighty Bonaparte, 
or the views of your humble scribe be right as to 
the future possession of Turkey, one thing is 
sure, no matter whether England, Russia, or the 
European powers as a whole decide who shall 
control the Moslem possessions, the hindrances 
to the Jews' return to their native land are fast 
being abolished and must soon be entirely re- 
moved. 

What awaits the Jew on his return to the 
pleasant land is of great consequence to us. 
Shall he who rejected and murdered his long- 
promised Shiloh prosper there while looking 
for another? Nay, verily, while they look for 
Christ lo, antichrist appears. As one has said, 
the object of their gathering is ultimately their 
conversion, but primarily their chastisement and 
suffering. God has great benedictions reserved 
for His exiled people, but they must be fearfully 
purged ere they enjoy them. The seat of Millen- 
nial glory is to be in their midst and all nations 
are to pour offerings at Jerusalem's gates, while 
the wilderness rejoices as the rose, but great 
must be their humbling and purging ere this 
long-promised blessing comes. "He shall sit as 
a refiner and purifier of silver, and He shall pur- 
ify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and 
silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offer- 
ing in righteousness," and He declares "Then 
shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 95 

pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and 
as in former years." And as to the place of this 
purging", we read in Ezekiel xxii, 19-22: "There- 
fore, thus saith the Lord God, because ye are all 
become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you 
into the midst of Jerusalem as they gather silver 
and brass and iron and lead and tin into the 
midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon 
it to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger 
and in my fury, and I will leave you there and 
melt you. Yea, I will gather you and blow upon 
you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall Tbe 
melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted 
in the midst of the furnace so shall ye be melted 
in the midst thereof, and ye shall know that I, 
the Lord, have poured out my fury upon you." 
This fearful calamity under the antichristian 
king of their own choosing is called by Jeremiah, 
chapter 30, verse 7: "The great day of Jacob's 
trouble." Jesus said of this time of great tribu- 
lation; "Except those days should be shortened 
(made short, only three and one -half years), there 
should no flesh escape." Jesus says: "I am come 
in my father's name, and ye receive me not; if 
another shall come in his own name, him ye will 
receive." The antichrist will now have come in 
his own name and will have been received by the 
Jews. The reader is requested to read carefully 
the second chapter of II Thessalonians, where 
this antichrist is especially described. It is there 
recorded that Christ shall not come till a great 
moral dearth, or falling away is seen, and "that 



96 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition (the 
antichrist) who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, so that he as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself 
that he is God." 

This antichrist has existed in all ages, in spirit, 
and manifested himself through his followers as 
Christ did through His. John w r rote; "Already 
there are many antichrists." Paul wrote: "The 
mystery of iniquity doth already work." So in 
all ages in the heresies, fanaticisms and persecu- 
tions which opposed the rule of heaven, anti- 
christ has been seen, as Jesus was seen in the oppo- 
site traits of character manifested by His humble, 
believing people. But this fact does not oppose 
the fact that a personal antichrist, with all the 
power and subtlety of "the father of lies," is to 
set himself up as the only object of worship just 
prior to the end of this dispensation. Paul de- 
scribes him as "The son of perdition;" "the man 
of sin." Jesus and Daniel both describe him as 
"The abomination that maketh desolate." And 
of the work of this impostor it is written: "His 
coming is after the working of Satan, with all 
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all 
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that 
perish, because they receive not the love of the 
truth that they might be saved." And for this 
cause God shall send them strong delusions that 
they might believe a lie; that they might be 
damned, who believe not the truth, but had 
pleasure in unrighteousness." And of the time 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 97 

when he shall appear it is said in the same con- 
nection, speaking of the end of this dispensation: 
"Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the 
Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, 
and shall destroy with the brightness of His 
coming." The same fact of the rise and work- 
ings of this creature and his destruction by the 
Lord in the judgment, is recorded in the last 
verses of the seventh chapter of Daniel. Let our 
unconvinced readers, if there be any, read the 
views of the Christian fathers who lived nearest 
the apostles' time. Augustine (Civ. Dei. torn. 
xx, 23), Irenaeus (Contra Her 5 cap. 25, 26), Ori- 
gen (Contra Cels. 6, 45), etc. This blasphemous 
deceiver is said to do great wonders, even to the 
giving of life to an image and causing it to speak 
and to make fire fall down from heaven. Read 
Revelation, chapter 13. He is there said to have 
power to deceive them that dwell on the earth, 
especially those that had pleasure in unright- 
eousness, by reason of these miracles. This Sa- 
tanic impostor represented under the figure of a 
beast that spoke as a dragon, is said to receive 
his power from, or exercise all the power of, an- 
other awful beast who lived before it, and who 
now lives contemporary and w T orks in harmony 
with it. This first beast is also said, in chapter 
twelve, to have received its power from a 
dragon. We all know that the beastly system of 
papal Rome is but a continuation of the diabol- 
ical dealings of pagan Rome, and again the 
beastly power of the latter-day antichrist will be 



98 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

but a continuation of the beastly power of papal 
Rome. Here is the interpretation of the figure. 
Now papal Rome, being this beast, in the first 
instance, which received its power from the 
dragon, is said in chapter thirteen to have been 
w T ounded by a sword and afterward healed. "The 
sword of the Spirit," the word of God in the 
hands of the reformers, fearfully wounded the 
beastly system of Roman superstitution in the 
sixteenth century and destroyed its civil power 
entirely in the seventeenth. But the present 
degenerate, blind and over-credulous spirit of 
modern protestantism is fast healing the wound 
of popery and giving it its old-time ascendency. 
This beast, or papal power, is described in the 
latter part of the thirteenth chapter of Revela- 
tions, as going intp harmonious relations with 
the third beast, which most commentators be- 
lieve to be the final antichrist. This is done 
with the same self-seeking intentions that have 
always characterized the pope, to the end that 
his own system might be greatly lauded and have 
a great image made to it. This beastly power thac 
has worshiped images so long will have its own 
image made an object of worship in the end. 
The beastly system of popery is to recover from 
the wound it received by the reformation and the 
subsequent reverses it has undergone through 
protestant supremacy; and the pope will offer 
his influence to this blasphemous usurper to the 
end that he may be recognized as the promised 
Jewish Shiloh, and he (the pope, himself), to re. 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 99 

ceive in turn a portion of the homage and wor- 
ship of the subjects of the antichrist. He is also 
to have either his own pompous image or the 
image of his system erected by antichrist, and 
all the earth will be forbidden to buy or sell 
only as they receive the mark, name, or number of 
this beast in their hands or foreheads. This is 
simpty the present papist boycott secret society 
system, a little more fully developed than now. 
The wire -pulling chicanery here shadowed forth by 
the inspired apostle is the very embodiment of 
the present spirit and past history of the pope of 
Rome and his Jesuit cabinet. 

When the Jewish antichrist, as a bestial, 
blasphemous, personage and power, is about to 
be set upon the re-established throne of Israel, 
the policy-working power of the pope, with all 
his satanic wisdom, will not fail to make capital 
of this stupendous occurrence. This antichrist - 
ian reception of power from a beast, or Jewish 
impostor's reception of papal support and in- 
fluence was also described to Daniel in the 
words: "His power shall be mighty, but not by 
his own power," for the devil and the pope shall 
both lend their power to the antichrist. As the 
devil offered Christ from the pinnacle of the tem- 
ple "All the kingdoms of the world and the 
glory of them," if he would worship him, but 
was spurned by Jesus; so now he offers the same 
bait to another, who gladly accepts the offer. 
And this antichrist will have come "in his own 
name," and the Jews will have received him, 



100 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

though they rejected their real Saviour who 
came in His father's name." Thus the abomina- 
tion of desolation spoken of by Daniel, the 
prophet, will be set tip in the holy place; per- 
mitted by the Lord for the chastening of those 
"who had pleasure in unrighteousness. " "The 
wicked are his sword," He has declared, and 
surely the scabbard of divine wrath will then be 
drawn. "The great tribulation," or "time of 
trouble, such as was not since there was a 
nation," will then begin, and three and one-half 
years later, the middle of the week of years 
spoken of by Daniel, it will break out in horrid 
and hellish force. For though it is expressly 
stated in Daniel ix, 27, that the covenant of 
this impostor with his wealthy, but deluded fol- 
lowers, the Jews, is to last a week of years, 
yet in the midst of those seven years his greed 
for power and applause will be such that the re- 
stored daily sacrifice will be abolished by him, 
and his own worship established as the divinely 
described "abomination that maketh desolate;" 
for ere this time comes the Jews will have 
largely been restored to their own land. Their 
temple will be rebuilt, and their old-time Mosaic 
ritual restored, which may soon be done, as 
the present Providential banishment of the Turks 
from Palestine and the Jews from Russia, is 
rapidly causing a return of the Jews to their own 
land. With what rapidity can that land of deso- 
lation be changed into a veritable Eden, especi- 
ally so, as we consider the mighty facilities for 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 101 

building and improvemant in our day, and the 
almost fabulous wealth of this people. Speaking 
of this time of trouble, Jesus said: "Then shall 
be great tribulation, such as was not since the 
beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever 
shall be." Again, it is written: "It shall be a 
time of trouble such as never was since there was 
a nation, even to that time." Though this dis- 
tress will be upon all the earth, "because the 
devil hath come down, having great wrath;" yet, it 
is especially called "The time of Jacob's trouble." 
And of the location of Antichrist's throne, 
he is said to "Plant the tabernacle of his palaces 
between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. " 
When, after the first three and one-half years of 
his sovereignty over this people, this impious im- 
postor shows himself in his real character, as the 
wolf in sheep's clothing, these deluded Israelites 
who, in their blindness, will have covenanted 
with death and with hell have been at agree- 
ment, shall find that their covenant with death 
shall be disannulled, and their agreement with 
hell shall not stand; for their bed will be too 
short for a man to stretch himself on it and their 
covering too narrow for a man to wrap him- 
self in it, and the overflowing scourge shall pass 
through and overflow their refuge of lies, and 
they shall be trodden down by it," even as it is 
written, Isaiah xxviii. For three full years and 
one-half shall this tide of despotic persecution 
roll. In many different places in God's word, 
and under several different figures, is it so stated 



102 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

It is for "A time, times and the dividing of 
time." — Daniel vii, 25. "It shall be for a time 
times and an half." — Daniel xii, 7. "The holy- 
city shall be trodden under foot forty and two 
months. 1 ' — Revelation xii, 2. "The woman (pure 
church) fled into the wilderness a thousand, two 
hundred and three score days." — Revelation xii, 6. 
"And power was given unto him to continue forty 
and two months." — Revelation xiii, 5. These 
passages, though foreshadowing other important 
periods, doubtless refer, as many able expositors 
of scripture agree, to the period of time covered 
by the reign of this spoiler reaching from the 
breach of his covenant with the Jews to his 
fearful fate at the appearing of Jesus Christ, as 
well as covering on a larger scale the last half 
of "the times of the Gentiles," as seen on the 
principle of interpreting three hundred and sixty 
years to a day. 

Apart from the the minute description of this 
blasphemous person and power as given in the 
Bible, it is only reasonable and in perfect accord 
with the nature of things to see all evil in the 
last days focalize and concentrate into one grand 
and pompous system of iniquity, having a visible 
head, the consummation of wickedness. This is 
only what the scriptures plainly tell us, that the 
present acting principles of right are doing. 
Only as to place, evil centralizes in this world 
and culminates in the setting up of antichrist, 
while righteousness focalizes in the heavens and 
finds its center in Jesus, its divine author. These 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 103 

two mighty powers will enter into mortal com- 
bat, as the scripture has declared, at the consum- 
mation of all things. In the natural world time 
is made up of light and darkness. The black 
prince of night throws his dusky pall over the 
face of nature and paralyzes for the time being 
the business activities of the world and en- 
velops it in the silence and inertia of the tomb, 
to be robbed of his transient victory by the 
speedy reappearance of the Prince of Light as 
he ascends the Eastern heavens, warming the 
world into renewed activity and encouraging and 
enlightening all nations in their march to the 
final judgment. It will be noticed here that the 
shadows deepen and grow more marked as the 
light increases. Thus it will be found in the 
spiritual world, where the conflict between light 
and shade is even more marked than in the nat- 
ural, that as divine light focuses on the world 
the darkness of sin grows more dense and deadly 
until, when Jesus comes, He will be confronted by 
the consummation of all wickedness in this per- 
sonal antichrist. History is but repeating* itself 
in this fearful purging process. Five times before 
has God ushered in a new and better dispensa- 
tion through judgments of this kind. In five 
successive dispensations we find grace bestowed 
and divine light increasing in power to the end of 
the dispensation. We also find that this light, 
while accepted by a few, was resisted by the 
masses, and consequently wickedness centralized 
and intensified until divine justice could stand no 



104 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

more and judgment was poured out on the multi- 
tudes; while the faithful few, as the divine seed, 
were carried over into the new dispensation. This 
is God's mode of saving the human race from self 
extermination. Read the history of the fall, the 
flood, the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, the 
deliverance from Egypt, the Babylonian captiv- 
ity and the destruction of Jerusalem — answerable 
to the first five days of the week. The Christian 
age, or last day of the week, will soon go like the 
rest, while God ushers in His millennial sabbath. 
The description of the final conflict with this 
antichristian power is given thus in Revelation 
nineteen: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold 
a white horse, and he that sat thereon is called 
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth 
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame 
of fire, and on his head were many crowns and 
he had a name written that no man knew but he 
himself. And he was clothed with a vesture 
dipped in blood, and his name is called The 
Word of God. And the armies which were in 
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed 
in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his 
mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he 
should smite the nations, and shall rule them 
with a rod of iron; and he treadeth the wine- 
press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty 
God. And he hath on his vesture and on his 
thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun, 
and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 105 

fowls that fly in the midst of heaven: 'Come and 
gather yourselves together unto the supper of 
the great God. That ye may eat the flesh of 
kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh 
of mighty men and of horses and of those that 
sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free 
and bond, both small and great.' And I saw the 
beast and the kings of the earth and their armies 
gathered together to make war against him that 
sat on the horse and against his army. And the 
beast was taken, and with him the false prophet 
that wrought miracles before him, with which he 
deceived them that had received the mark of the 
beast and them that worshiped his image ! These 
both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning 
with brimstone. And the remnant were slain 
with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, 
which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all 
the fowls were filled with their flesh." 



CHAPTER VI. 

By consulting the eleventh chapter of Genesis, 
it will be found that away back in the morning 
of time when the human race was an infant, that 
it grew tired of God's control and God's plan of 
getting men to heaven, and conceived the idea of 
constructing a better mode of operation and a 
more convenient and satisfactory plan of taking 
men to the skies. The baby race stepped from its 
oriental cradle and with its back toward the 
rising sun, and consequently treading in its own 
shadow, it "journeyed from the East" toward 
the muddy western plains of "Shinar." There, 
in its infant idiocy it determined to "build a 
tower whose top should reach unto heaven." The 
race would become robbers of God by climbing 
up some other way, and taking forcible posses- 
sion of the celestial world; thus proving them- 
selves the children of their satanic inspirer, who 
was himself expelled from heaven for a similar 
act. In the muddy plains in which they now 
dwelt, there was no stone, no God-made mount- 
ain rock with which to build such a tower, 
so they were forced to "make brick and burn 
them thoroughly," and "slime had they for 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 107 

mortar." But though they prospered for a time, 
God finally rained confusion upon them and they 
were "Scattered abroad upon the face of all the 
earth." Thus it is seen that this "Babel" busi- 
ness contained the disease germs of its own 
death, and also brought about the very scatter- 
ing abroad which it was calculated to avoid. In 
a new sense do we find history repeating itself, 
and now in the evening of time we find the race 
in its dotage, or second childhood, doing in 
effect that which it did in the morning of its 
infancy; namely, building a system of human 
salvation apart from God's divine gospel plan, in 
fine, an intellectual and ecclesiastical Babel 
tower. The unity of the spirit on gospel lines, 
typified by the "one speech" of this chapter 
is gone. The race have grown tired of the un- 
palatable and old-fashioned gospel demands, and 
they purpose to reach the skies on their own 
efforts. They have turned their backs toward 
the source of gospel light, the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, and in the gloom of their own shadows they 
have journeyed "from the East," and in the 
muddy plains of moral "Shinar" they are erecting 
their Babylonish edifice. A brick is of human 
origin; God alone can create stone. And as they 
had brick for stone we look for same human subs- 
titute for the divine in religion to-day, and find 
that the builders of this modern edifice take 
those into church fellowship who are living 
flagrantly unclean lives, and often do not even 
pretend to have renounced their sins. Intellect- 



108 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

uality, worldly respectability, and money are 
generally the commending features in these 
church members. The modern revival is simply 
the throwing open of the church doors and 
an invitation to Egyptians, Babylonians, Ca- 
naanites, and all to come in on their own terms. 
Then this degenerate church which loves to 
"make a fair show in the flesh," swells and 
struts and boasts of her accessions, conversions 
and progress in converting the world; when in 
reality the w r orld is converting her into a harlot, 
and her houses of prayer into dens of thieves. 
Thus a war of conflicting creeds and teachings 
is carried on until some places are cursed with 
churches, while "confusion" reigns and sin holds 
sway. The tendency of sin is to divide and 
scatter, the work of the Holy Ghost is to unify 
and harmonize. The coming of Christ alone can 
offset the discordancy in modern religion, as was 
foreshadowed by the unity among the disciples 
on the day of Pentecost. No marvel that there 
is now a people who declare that it is a sin to be 
identified with an organized church body, which 
they call a "sect." Yet this people have no pan- 
acea for the ills they deplore, but rather have 
themselves broken into over a score of different 
sects in less than as many years, each of whose 
unwritten rules are as real and binding as the 
written rules which they deplore, and each teach- 
ing doctrines which conflict with that of the 
other and unchristian izing the other. A modern 
fashionable revival is simply a Babylonish brick- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 109 

kiln in operation, where man-made Christians, 
or baptized worldlings, are converted into brick 
for this spiritual Babel tower. "Slime had they 
for mortar," continues the inspired writer. Yes, 
the brick in this modern tower are joined to- 
gether not by the cementing power of God's love, 
but by selfishness; they join the church for policy 
sake. "Each seek their own, not the things of 
Jesus Christ." God's real children are likened 
in the bible, not to brick, but to "living stones," 
"built apon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner stone." They are said to grow up a spir- 
itual temple in the Lord." As man makes brick, 
but God alone can make stone, so man can 
make visible church members, but it takes the 
creative power of God in conversion to make 
Christians, or "living stones." The difference, 
then, between a modern and a Holy Ghost revival 
is just the difference between a brick-kiln and a 
stone-quarry. There is never any noise in a brick 
yard. There is no need of any sound louder than 
the splash and slush of mud-mixing puddlers. 
Not so in a stone -quarry. There is heard the 
ring of steel and stone in conflict, drills and ham- 
mers in noisy operation, interrupted at intervals 
by the thunderous roar of dynamite or blasting 
powder, and shivered rocks. Here is God's illus- 
tration of the genuine and the counterfeit in re- 
ligion. Though there is no more particular good 
in the noise of a revival meeting than there is in 
the noise of a stone-quarry, yet noise is the ac- 



110 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

companiment of both, and there is little accom- 
plished where it does not exist. The noise of a 
blast of powder does not split the rocks, but the 
exploding* powder and the splitting rock are al- 
ways accompanied by noise. The great apostle 
to the Gentiles spoke of "the things that accom 
pany salvation." Oh, for more laborers in the 
Lord's stone-quarries and for a withering destruc- 
tion of the devil's popular brick-kilns! Amen, 
and amen! Dear reader, are you ready for the 
coming day of doom, when the vials of God's 
righteous wrath shall be poured out upon a har- 
lot church and a Christ-rejecting world, while 
they are yet laboring to complete this latter day 
Babel tower? Oh, turn to the Lord while you 
may! "To-day is the day of salvation." 

The foregoing facts, confirmed by almost every 
prophecy, give us reason to believe that the 
most stupendous issues are about to be enacted 
that were ever heard of since the earth rolled out 
from the womb of the universe and the morning 
stars sang together a paen of praise at its birth. 
Surely, the garners of God are stored with bene- 
dictions for His faithful few, but the celestial 
horticulturalists must pluck the tares from the 
divine wheat field ere these store houses be 
opened. 



CHAPTER VII. 

We now purpose to consider the great epochs 
of inspired history as given by the revelators, 
Daniel and John, to see if an unbiased interpre- 
tation of these mighty visions do not warrant us 
in taking the position that we are living in the 
last fleeting hours of time. In the second chap- 
ter of the book of Daniel is given a description 
of Nebuchadnezzar's vision and the failure of 
the Chaldean sorcerers to interperet it, even 
under sentence of death, and the final revelation 
of both the vision and the meaning thereof by 
Daniel, the prophet. 

It seems more natural than strange that this 
vision of earthly empire, this glimpse of the 
world's future, should not be given to a child of 
grace, but to a representative of the world, and 
especially this man who was the world's great 
representative at this time, the first universal 
king the world had ever known. This is espec- 
ially so as we consider that God's own chosen 
servant was to be the revealer of it; and that, 
too, to the confusion of the religious impostors 
of the nation and the complete dethronement of 
their superstitious system. 



112 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

This dream embodies an outline of the rise and 
fall of nations and the history of human govern- 
ments to the end of time. We read: "This image's 
head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of 
silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs 
of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay." 
The various metals of which this image was 
composed is stated in Daniel's interpretation as 
referring to several universal sovereignties. To 
Nebuchadnezzar he declared, "Thou are this head 
of gold," as is often the case to-day, the king 
being put for the kingdom. Babylon, the first 
and grandest of universal kingdoms, with Nebu- 
chadnezzar, the most magnanimous of heathen 
kings at its head, and those Babylonian mon- 
archs who succeeded him, constituted this head of 
gold. Daniel continues: "And after thee there 
shall rise another kingdom inferior to thee. " The 
next universal kingdom after Babylon, and the 
one which subdued this mistress of the world, 
the beauty of the Chaldee's excellency, was 
Medo-Persia. So ephemeral is the existence of 
human pomp and splendor at best that we find 
this most illustrious of all nations blasted on the 
rocks of sensuality under Belshazzer in less 
than seventy years after its meridian splendor 
under his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. The two 
kingdoms of Media and Persia, now united under 
Cyrus, the Persian, form the arms and breast and 
shoulders of the image. The prophet proceeds, 
"And another third kingdom of brass which shall 
bear rule over the earth." This third kingdom, 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 113 

said here also to be universal, as nearly all Bible 
expositors agree, referred to the Grecian empire 
which, under its second sovereign, Alexander the 
Great, subdued and conquered the Medo-Persians. 
He conquered all the nations of the earth and 
wept, so it is stated, because there were no more 
worlds to conquer, and yet the poor sensualist 
could not conquer his own appetite, but died in a 
bacchanalian debauch at the age of thirty-three 
years, after having drank over three gallons of 
liquor. There can be no mistake in locating 
what nation is referred to by the brazen belly 
and thighs of the image, as Daniel himself 
in another place stated that it was ' 'the king of 
Grecia." 

The prophet concludes his description of the 
image seen by the king in these words: "His legs 
of iron, his feet, part of iron and part of pot- 
ter's clay." This part of the image Daniel says 
referred to a fourth kingdom that, ' 'As iron that 
breaketh in pieces all these, shall it break in 
pieces and bruise. 1 ' The exact name of this 
kingdom is not given in the writings of Daniel, 
doubtless for the reason that the Old Testament 
scriptures were to be complete before its exist- 
ence as a nation of note. And possibly from the 
fact that it was to have a fuller description by 
John, the apostle, and the history of nations is 
only given in God's word as they effect the lives 
and destiny of His people. Rome, however, is 
the only nation which can be made to answer the 
description given. She alone conquered the 



114 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Greeks and succeeded to universal empire, so 
much so that in the New Testament we read of 
"A decree from Caesar Augustus that all the 
world should be taxed." Rome also, the strong- 
est, though by no means the best of nations, ex- 
actly fulfills the description of the prophet in 
that it "bruised, broke in pieces, and subdued all 
things." Also in that it was divided into two 
divisions, Eastern and Western, answerable to 
the two legs of the image. This iron empire, 
Rome, was not to stand forever, so we find feet and 
toes on the legs of the image. After this impe- 
rial nation had played its part in the great drama 
it was broken by the hand of Providence into va- 
rious subdivisions, of which there were just ten, 
answerable, as is seen, to the ten toes of the 
image. But as the feet and toes were partially of 
potter's clay and partly of iron, so to-day we find 
the nations into which imperial Rome dissolved 
herself, and all the nations of the earth (for univer- 
sality of application is aimed at by the prophet 
all through this vision), though having much 
of the strength of ancient legal and military 
Rome, yet they have much of the fickle clay 
of human caprice and whim in their nature and 
government. 

Just to the extent that imperial Rome grew 
democratic, God likened its iron as changed to 
clay. For what can be more fickle than the 
ever-changing opinion which rules republics? 
Our boasted democracy and the sovereignty of 
public opinion is as miry clay in His sight who 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 115 

sees our wisdom to be foolishness, We are living* 
in the age covered by the feet and toes of this 
image, hence we fail to find upon investigation, 
any government upon earth which is not a mix- 
ture of iron and clay, a commingling of the sev- 
ereignty of the people with God's divine theo- 
cratic imperialism. All nations are essentially 
Roman, and all our laws are especially so since 
the days of Augustus Caesar. The Roman code 
forms the gist of all laws of Latin races, and will 
do so until displaced by heaven's divine the- 
ocracy. The nations of to-day dig* their iron 
from Roman mines. Rome still lives in the laws 
and principles of government of every nation on 
earth. As we behold the thrones and govern- 
ments of earth tottering, we feel encouraged 
that the next act in the divine program is the 
mystic stone, the God-made original rock, cut 
from the mountain of omnipotence, the govern- 
ment which shall have no end. 

Before going further into the drama which 
shows the fate of nations it might be well to 
notice the general trend of humanity and all 
earthly government. In open antagonism to the 
current idea of human improvement, if this 
vision of inspiration be correct, it shows a con- 
stant deterioration from gold to common clay. 
Babylon, the first of universal nations, is shown 
in its right place as representing the head of the 
image, but its superior character is seen in the 
material used — gold. Whatever may have been 
its disadvantages on lines of ignorance, one 



116 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

thing is certain: those who are acquainted with 
the real history of nations and read that history 
in the light of God, in comparing Babylon with 
any nation since, must exclaim with the prophet: 
"How is the fine gold become dim?" Is there a 
nation on earth to-day that could be entirely 
turned from its idols to worship the true God 
through the dream of one man, and it interpreted 
by a despised foreign captive? Nay, if all the 
ministers of earth were to unite in declaring a 
revelation had been given them from heaven, as 
in the case of Ninevah, that if the nations did 
not repent and turn to God in forty days they 
would be destroyed, we can hardly believe that 
one would comply with the divine requirement. 
In this light then, what has our human improve- 
ment done for us? Simply hardened us in our 
unbelief and sell-sufficiency. The age of Grecian 
learning and art so much lauded by modern 
scholars as the age of orators, poets, painters, 
heroes, sculptors, etc., is compared by the divine 
mind, not to gold, or even silver, but to the dazzle 
and glitter of brass. Paul thus describes human 
oratory, even in ministers, in the thirteenth 
chapter of I Corinthians as "sounding brass/' 
This may sound very queer to our bigoted repub- 
lican readers with their boasted civilization and 
reform. But sure it is, the childlike simplicity 
of earlier ages has given place to an unbelieving, 
carnal, self-sufficiency, which is an abomination 
in God's sight. We freely grant that man is more 
learned, that he has sought out many inventions, 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 117 

that he is better acquainted with the elements of 
earth and the principles of human progress. But 
we know the truth of the divine statement that 
"knowledge puffeth up," and the "wisdom of the 
world is foolishness." The guilt of man's sin 
and rebellion against God is as much greater to- 
day than that of two thousand years ago as the 
light and knowledge of to-day is greater than 
the light of that age. Heathen nations in their 
simplicity never doubted the possibility, or even 
the probability of inspired revelation. It is left 
for this infidel age of learning and improvement 
to disbelieve in the supernatural. As knowledge 
has increased and light has been rejected, the 
gold of humanity has become dross until to-day 
there is more mud than metal in human thought 
as well as in human government. This divine 
revelation of the moral retrograde that accom- 
panies our boasted progress ought to humble us 
greatly. We should learn, though self-denial and 
respect for Deity have rocked the cradle of every 
nation, yet sensuality and science have dug their 
graves, and history is repeating itself in our 
day. 

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out 
without hands, which smote the image upon its 
feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them 
to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the 
brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces 
together and become like the chaff of the summer 
threshing* floors, and the wind carried them 
away, that no place was found for them, and the 



118 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

stone that smote the image became a great 
mountain and filled the whole earth." "And in 
the days of these kings shall the God of heaven 
set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, 
and the kingdom shall not be left to another peo- 
ple, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdoms and it shall stand forever." By 
reading the second chapter of Daniel it will be 
seen that this latter verse is the explanation of 
the former two. "In the days of those kings," 
represented by the toes of the image, refers to 
the days in which we live. "The stone" has 
reference to Jesus, the Rock of ages. He, at his 
second coming, shall smite the image on the toes 
and break in pieces and consume all these king- 
doms. That the kings here referred to are the 
kings represented by the toes of the image, which 
covered all the time from the fall of imperial 
Rome to the setting up of God's kingdom in the 
earth, there can be no doubt. It requires a great 
wresting of the scriptures to derive any other 
meaning than this from the prophet's words. 

That the smiting of the image on the feet and 
breaking it in pieces could not possibly have re- 
ferred to the first advent, as some affirm it does, 
is plain from the very nature of things. The ten 
toes of the image was not yet developed, for Rome 
was still imperial in the days of Jesus. There 
was no "division" of the empire, nor clay among 
the toes for nearly five hundred years after the 
birth of Christ. Again, this stone kingdom was 
not to be simply spiritual, without any corporeal 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 119 

substance no more than the kingdoms which pre- 
ceded it, for it was to destroy them and take 
their place, or be erected on their site. Nor can 
the words of the prophet, "Smote the image and 
make it like the chaff of the summer threshing" 
floors," apply to such a quiet, noiseless, peace- 
ful affair as the establishing of the church at 
the first advent. These words of the prophet 
bespeak violence, destruction and carnage, rather 
than the peaceful and silent working of spiritual 
power. He told the disciples, who surely had 
the spiritual kindom in their hearts, to pray 
•'Thy kingdom come." Does this not prove that 
His kingdom had not yet come in the apostles' 
day, and as He tells his disciples to-day to offer 
the same prayer, it argues that it has not yet 
come. He also said to his disciples, who surely 
enjoyed religion: "Fear not, little flock, for 
jit is your Father's good pleasure to give you tlie 
kingdom." 

This surely proves it was yet future at this 
time. We are forced to the conclusion that an 
unbiased interpretation of this vision proves that 
we are living in the very days when God has 
promised to set up His kingdom in the earth, 
"His everlasting kingdom," that "shall not be 
left to another people." Reader, are you pre- 
pared to stand amid the crash of empires and 
the wreck of worlds? If not, I entreat you to 
flee into the ark of the covenant at once, for 
"The dream is certain and the interpretation 
thereof sure." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

We next invite the attention of the reader to 
the second vision of empire, or Daniel's dream of 
the four beasts, as given in the seventh chapter 
of his prophecy. Daniel was given this glimpse 
of the world's history in "The first year of Bel 
shazzar, king ot Babylon." He says: "Behold, 
the winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, 
and four great beasts came up out of the sea, di- 
verse one from another." In the symbolical 
language used here, as will be seen by referring 
to Revelation, chapter 17, verse 15, the words, 
"the great sea," referred to the greet mass of 
human beings, a sea of human souls. The winds 
which strove upon this sea from the four quarters 
of heaven, designate war, strife and political up- 
heavals, as is seen from the fact that kingdoms 
and dynasties arose as a consequence of the 
striving winds.. It will be noticed that those 
four beasts were not contemporary, but succeeded 
each other. "These great beasts," says the 
prophet, "which are four kings," or kingdoms, 
"shall arise out of the earth." "The first was 
like a lion and had eagle's wings." This beast 
denotes the same power as is designated by the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 121 

golden head of the image as seen by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, for precisely the same ground is gone 
over in this vision that was traversed in the 
vision of the great image, that the children of 
men might have line upon line and precept upon 
precept, here a little and there a little. The 
great image which appeared to Nebuchadnezzar 
outlined the world's political history, as seen by 
a political worldling, a heathen monarch. Thus 
it appeared as a great colossal image, grand and 
imposing, in comparison to which the kingdom of 
God appeared as unpretentious "stone." To 
Daniel, the prophet of the Lord, these empires 
are shown in their true character, as God sees 
them under the figures of cruel and ravenous 
beasts, despotic and unmerciful monsters. Baby- 
lon is therefore referred to as this winged lion. 
Nearly all expositors of scripture agree that this 
first beast, the winged lion, referred to Babylon, 
which at the time of this vision ("the first year of 
Belshazzar,") was the grandest and noblest of 
mere earthly kingdoms. It is made to appear 
under the figure of the king of beasts, with the 
addition of the wings of the grandest of birds, 
just as it appeared to the king under the figure 
of a head of gold. Surely, the great strength, 
magnificence and speed of motion which always 
characterized the armies of Nebuchadnezzar are 
well shadow T ed forth under the figure of a lion with 
an eagle's wings. But the prophet beheld this 
winged lion plucked of its feathers and made 
to stand upon its feet, and a man's heart was 



122 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

given to it. These words shadow forth the rapid 
decline from the exalted character of the nation 
under Nebuchadnezzar to its base condition under 
Belshazzar. The nation was robbed of its 
strength, its celerity, and its grandeur, the eagle 
wings were plucked, the boldness of the lion was 
gone and a man's heart, timorous and fearful was 
substituted. 

"And behold another beast, a second, like to a 
bear, and it raised up itself on one side and had 
three ribs in the mouth of it, and between the 
teeth of it, and they said unto it: "Arise, devour 
much flesh •" That this beast symbolized the 
Medo-Persian dominion, few deny. The same 
manifest deterioration, which in the great image 
marked the decline from gold to clay, from the 
head to the toes, is seen here. Inasmuch as the 
bear is inferior to the lion, Medo-Persia was in- 
ferior to Babylon. The bear is said to have 
"raised up itself on one side." This refers to 
the fact, that though the empire was in two 
divisions, the Medes and the Persians, the latter 
element attained to much greater notoriety than 
the former. The "three ribs in the mouth of it," 
are thought by many commentators to refer to 
the provinces of Babylon, Lydia and Egypt, 
which were especially oppressed by this power. 

"After this," continues the prophet, "I beheld, 
and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon 
the back of it four wings of a fowl, the beast had 
also four heads, and dominion was given to it." 
The third kingdom, Greece, answerable to the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 123 

brazen belly and thighs of the great image is 
here presented under the figure of a four-headed 
and four-winged leopard. If wings upon the lion 
denoted celerity of motion and speed of conquest, 
what great swiftness of action must be shadowed 
forth by this figure. The leopard is a fleet-footed 
beast, but it must have four wings to enlarge its 
alacrity. This figure exactly describes the Mace- 
donian empire under Alexander. The speed with 
which his conquests followed each other was as- 
tonishing. His career of carnage, which was be- 
gun at the age of twenty, was successful in laying 
the world in chains at his feet in twelve years. 
Surely, as the prophet said, "dominion was given 
to it." The four heads of this beast represented 
the four divisions into which the Grecian empire 
was broken at the death of Alexander, each di- 
vision being ruled by one of his noted generals, 
Seleucius, Ptolemy, Cassander and Lyssimachus, 
"After this I saw in the night visions, and a 
fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong 
exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth; it de- 
voured and brake in pieces and stamped the resi- 
due with the feet of it, and it was diverse from 
all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten 
horns, and behold there came up among them 
another little horn, before whom there were 
three of the first horns plucked up by the 
roots, and behold, in this horn there were eyes 
like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking 
great things." This fourth kingdom, which no 
beast in nature could in any sense foreshadow, it 



124 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

was so terrible, is the one which especially ar- 
rested the prophet's attention. The angel, when 
making the vision known to Daniel, said, "The 
fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon 
the earth." And that this forth universal king- 
dom was in some sense to continue to hold sway, 
until the end of time and the establishing of 
God's everlasting kingdom in the earth, is clearly 
seen from the fact that Daniel was still behold- 
ing the movements of the little eleventh horn of 
this beast, when the great God appeared and set 
up his everlasting kingdom. "I beheld until the 
thrones were cast down and the Ancient of days 
did sit; ***** * And behold one like 
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven 
to the Ancient of days. * * * * * * 
And there was given him a dominion and glory 
and a kingdom that all people and nations and 
language shall serve him. His dominion is an 
everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, 
and his kingdom that which shall not be de- 
stroyed." This nondescript beast corresponds 
to the iron legs and feet of the great image. 

It seems strange that there should arise any 
difference of opinion as to what power is referred 
to by this beast. It could mean no other power 
than Rome which devoured with its "iron teeth" 
all the nations of earth and "stamped the residue 
with its feet." Rome alone conquered the Greeks 
and succeeded to universal rule. The history of 
the world from the termination of the Grecian 
government is all written under the reign of the 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 125 

Roman beast. The ten horns of this dreadful 
beast represent the same division of the Roman 
empire into ten parts as was represented by the 
ten toes of the great image, or universality of 
dominion until displaced by the "everlasting 
kingdom." It is written: "And the ten horns of 
this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." 
The little horn which came after, which was said 
to be diverse from the rest and had "eyes like 
the e3 r es of a man, and a mouth speaking great 
things," represents at present the papacy, which 
will terminate in the setting up of the antichrist. 
These eyes, of course, are symbols of the cun- 
ning foresight of both the present pope and the 
future antichrist, and the "mouth speaking great 
things," an emblem of the blasphemous, preten- 
tious and arrogant assumptions of both the pope 
and the antichrist, for these two are one in in- 
spiration and aim. 

A few of the titles claimed at present by the 
pope, are as follows: "Lord God, the Pope," 
"King of Kings and Lord of Lords," "His Holi- 
ness," "Vicegerent of the Son of God," "A God 
upon Earth." Antichrist himself can claim no 
more. Of this little eleventh horn, it is written: 
"His look (appearance) was more stout than his 
fellows, and the same horn made war with the 
saints and prevailed against them." The voices 
of 55,000,000 of martyrs proclaim in thunder 
tones that this prophecy has passed into history 
in reference to the papacy, and it is yet to have 
a much more marked and fearful fulfillment in 



126 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

reference to the antichrist, or popery, in its final 
form. Rome still lives, and in a sense, holds un- 
iversal dominion, not only in her laws and prin- 
ples of government, but in her ghostly and blas- 
phemous representative, the pope, who was given 
his power by a Roman emperor, and w T ields that 
power, not only over the actions of its millions, 
but over their consciences also. This coming 
reign of Roman terror, or antichristian, "time of 
great tribulation, such as was not since the 
world was," is soon to commence, when a man 
vitalized with all the power of the devil, and en- 
tirely unencompassed by any counteracting good, 
arrogantly claiming the prerogatives of the Al- 
mighty, is to hold sway over part of the earth, at 
least, for the space of three and a half years. This 
little horn is now in part set up in the papacy, and 
who but glances at the signs of the times in these 
history-making days and beholds the giant pow- 
ers of evil at work, but sees the probabilities of 
this insidious and subtle power of the pope, and 
other wicked influences being given to the beast of 
the revelation, and antichrist, thus completely 
developed. 

Contrary to many other expositors of prophecy 
we assert that the "Babylon" of the book of 
Revelation is constructed of all forms of corrupt 
religion. Protestants assert that it refers to 
popery, while papists assert that it refers to 
literal Babylon, but that a combination of all 
corrupt forms of theology is referred to, we 
think there can be little doubt. Literal Baby- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 127 

Ion it could not mean, for she had passed from 
the field of nations over two thousand years be- 
fore the prophet John was born, and his refer- 
ences to her would not need to be received by in- 
spiration, but could be read in any historic work 
of his day. Nor does it seem reasonable that 
God would devote so much sacred scripture to a 
description of the corrupt and satanic system of 
popery alone, and entirely overlook the other al- 
most equally widespread and vicious religions 
that Were to oppose heaven's rule and make war 
with his saints in all ages. It is the principle of 
wickedness and rebellion against God that he is 
everywhere denouncing, and he knows that all 
wickedness is a unit, proceeding from the evil 
one, and he has announced that all evil would 
focalize into one solid body in the last days, this 
solid whole to be presided over by the long-pre- 
dicted personal Apollyon. He has given us a 
description of the last conflict and the destruc- 
tion of this corrupt spiritual power which is a 
culmination and embodiment of all wicked spirit- 
ual systems. Though, since the apostle wrote 
the words, "the mystery of iniquity doth already 
work," to this day there have been principles at 
work to the end that "Babylon" may be devel- 
oped, and in these latter days their end is being 
rapidly attained, yet the Babylon of the Apoca- 
lypse is evidently not yet fully developed. 

We look in the near future for a combination of 
religious forces, a unification around one common 
center of all, or nearly all, corrupt religions, 



128 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Buddhism, Paganism, Mohammedism, Hinduism, 
Spiritualism, Judahism, Romanism and the cor- 
rupt and worldly portions of Protestantism, 
the religious parliaments and congresses of the 
world and such like societies, where Christ is 
placed merely side by side and on equal footing 
with Eastern idols, as was the case at the World's 
Fair, are fast bringing about this state of things 
under the guise of such catch- words as ' 'a liberal 
spirit," "religious toleration," etc. The end de- 
sired, which is a catholic, or universal, brother- 
hood in religion, is expected to be a great 
benediction to earth, but will prove to be the act 
that will enthrone antichrist and call down on 
this lost world the sorest plagues she ever 
knew. This despotic, bloody and satanic time is 
in several places declared to last three and one- 
half years, or 1,260 days. Paul has said in refer- 
ence to the setting up of this blasphemer, "for the 
mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he 
who now letteth will let until he be taken out of 
the way. Then shall that Wicked be revealed, 
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of 
his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his 
coming." This mystery of iniquity is said here 
by Paul to be already at work. The devil, with 
all his subtle and mysterious influences, is at 
work on the popular mind to deceive men, and 
great is his success. 

The very intellectual activities which men are 
lauding to the skies, are being largely energized 
by the devil, and used by him to bring about his 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 129 

satanic ends. "Only He who now letteth will 
let (hinder) until he be taken out of the way." 
This points out the fact that antichrist, as the 
devil's appointee, would take possession of this 
world at once, but for the hindrances thrown in 
his way by God's blessed spirit. But this spirit 
that now "hindereth" Satan's plans will be 
"taken away" soon. "My spirit shall not al- 
ways strive with man." "And then shall that 
Wicked be revealed." Oh, how soon is antichrist 
enthroned when God's hindering spirit is taken 
away! How quick this world will become a 
place of torment when left to the tender mercies 
of boastful, haughty man. It would be so now, 
but for the restraining and overruling power 
of the blessed and omnipresent Holy Ghost. 
Every good and every perfect gift cometh from 
Him. "There hath been a manifestation of the 
Spirit given to every man to profit withal." Oh, 
sinner, ere the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, 
probation be ended, and God withdraws his Spirit 
from striving with rebel hearts and leaves this 
world a hell that needs but to be "cast in the 
lake of fire," repent and seek his face! Is it not 
plain in the light of this vision that we are living 
in the days when He has promised to set up his 
everlasting kingdom in the earth. We are living 
in the reign of the little horn of Daniel's Roman 
beast, and it is seen by the angel's interpretation 
of this vision, that it was during the reign of this 
horn which "spoke great things," that "the judg- 
ment was set." 



CHAPTER IX. 

Surely, as the prophet has declared, and the 
poet placed his words in verse : 

" Westward the oourse of empire takes its way, 
The first four acts already past ; 
The fifth shall close the drama with the day, 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

In chapter eight of the book of Daniel is given 
a record of the same universal kingdoms we have 
been dealing with under the figure of the great 
image and the four beasts. These powers are 
now revealed to the prophet in a vision in their 
special relation to Israel, or the people of God; 
the ground is gone over several times that the 
different characteristics may be brought out. The 
little horn that was of no particular interest to 
Nebuchadnezzar, and therefore not mentioned in 
his vision, is of the greatest importance to the 
prophet as the destroyer of his people, and is 
consequently given prominence in both of his 
visions. 

This vision, which was revealed to Daniel at 
Shushan, the palace, or seat of Babylonian au- 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 131 

thority, was given just prior to the downfall of 
that proud monarchy; and as it was to have no 
future dealings of note with the people of God, it 
is entirely omitted from the vision. The vision 
therefore begins with the Medo-Persian empire 
in these words: "Then I lifted up mine eyes and 
saw, and behold, there stood by the river a ram 
which had two horns; and the two horns were 
high, but one was higher than the other, and the 
higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing 
westward, northward and southward, so that no 
beasts might stand before him, neither was there 
any that could deliver out of his hand, but he 
did according to his will and became great." 
In verse twenty of this same chapter the angel 
interpreted these verses as referring to the Medo- 
Persian empire. The two horns designated the 
two divisions of the empire. The one which 
"came up last" being "higher than the other," 
referred to the fact that the Persians, with Cyrus 
at their head, who were but called by Darius to 
the assistance of the Medes in battle, after the 
death of Darius, became the main-stay of the 
nation, greatly transcending the Median ele- 
ment, as was also shown in the other vision by 
the bear lifting himself higher on one side than 
th eother. 

The marked change in the figure used here to 
designate Medo-Persia from that used in the 
vision of the four beasts, lies in the fact that in 
the vision of the four beasts it was viewed as 
a worldly power-seeking dominion, in which ca- 



132 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

pacity it was ferocious and wild as a bear. Here 
it is viewed in its special relation to Israel alone, 
and in this relation Medo-Persia never played 
the part of a ravenous beast, but rather a 
humane and friendly power, as may be seen from 
reading" the book of Esther, and recalling the fact 
that this power liberated the Jews from their 
Babylonian captivity and aided them in rebuild- 
ing* their temple. The fact that the prophet saw 
this ram pushing westward, northward and south- 
ward, so that no beast might stand before him," 
symbolizes, as history shows, the directions in 
which this dominion pushed its successful mili- 
tary campaigns, until in the days of Ahasuerus, 
he had all the known world at his feet — one hun 
dred and twenty and seven provinces. Thus it 
"became great," read Esther, chapter 1, verse 1. 
The prophet continues: "And as I was consider- 
ing, behold, an he goat came from the West on the 
face of all the whole earth and touched not the 
ground, and the goat had a notable horn between 
his eyes. And he came to the ram that had the 
two horns, which I had seen standing before the 
river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 
And I saw him come close on to the ram, and 
he was moved with choler against him, and smote 
the ram and brake his two horns, and there was 
no power in the ram to stand before him, but 
he cast him down to the ground and stamped 
upon him, and there was none that could deliver 
the ram out of his hand." That this goat meant 
the kingdom of Greece there can be no doubt, as 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 133 

the angel himself, in verse twenty-one, says: 
4 'And the rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the 
great horn that is between his eyes is the first 
king." The change of symbol here again from 
the four-headed leopard of the former vision to 
such a domestic and harmless animal as a goat is 
found alone in its relation to Israel. As a worldly 
power it was like the wild beast, but in its 
special relation to the descendants of Abraham it 
was like Medo-Persia, a friendly power, though 
morally unclean, symbolized by the proverbial 
uncleanness of a goat. Greece lay west of Per- 
sia, hence the revelator Daniel saw the goat come 
from the West. "It touched not the ground." 
These words designate the great speed of Grecian 
conquest under the noted Alexander, as also 
shadowed forth by the winged leopard. Its 
great horn is said by the angel to be the first 
king (of note) Alexander, who created the na- 
tions, and then blasted its magnificence and life 
with his own, in sensuality and debauch. After 
which four notable horns were said by the angel 
to take the place of the great horn that was 
broken. This the angel explained in verse twen 
ty-two, as describing the four divisions into 
which the Grecian empire was divived by Alex- 
ander's generals after his death. The four horns 
show the same divisions as the four heads of the 
leopard. 

A third and last earthly power is introduced 
by the prophet in these words: "And out of one 
of them came a little horn, which waxed ex- 



134 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

ceeding great toward the South and toward 
the East and toward the Pleasant land. And 
it waxed great, even to the host of heaven, 
and it cast down some of the host and some 
of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon 
them; yea, he magnified himself even to the 
prince of the host, and by him the daily sac 
rifice was taken away and the place of his 
sanctuary was cast down. And an host was 
given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of 
transgression and it cast down the truth to the 
ground, and it practised and prospered." Though 
some good men (who have not yet entirely cleared 
their theology from the fogs of popery) differ 
from us, we are convinced, with many others, 
that none other than Rome is referred to in this 
passage, unless the figure also admits of Moham- 
medanism, which is possible. Rome alone con- 
quered the Greeks and possessed herself of their 
dominions, and ruled the world after them. This 
power is not described as definitely as the others, 
from the fact that it was to plaj^ its part on the 
stage of time in a different age or dispensation 
from all the others, and possibly from the fact 
that God intended to give it more minute descrip- 
tion later under the pen of John, the Revelator. 
It is called a little horn. Such it was at first, 
doubtless, before its appearance on the page of 
history. For the omnipotent God knows better 
than Gibbon, or any other historian or antiquar- 
ian, the real womb in which Rome was conceived, 
or the real cradle in which it was rocked. 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 135 

Though it first appeared as a "little horn," it did 
not retain that appearance, for the prophet saw 
it "wax exceeding" great." This strong language 
well describes Rome. The term given is stronger 
than that used to designate either Persia or 
Greece, which are spoken of as being "great" and 
"very great./ The extension of its greatness 
toward the South, the East and the Pleasant 
land (Judea), refer exactly to the directions in 
which some of Rome's greatest and most success- 
ful conquests were pushed. His waxing great, 
"even to the host of heaven," and his "casting 
down some of them," his "magnifying himself 
even to the prince of the host," and his "taking 
away of the daily sacrifice by transgressions," 
and his "casting the truth to the ground," and 
his "practicing and prospering," are all figures 
which evidently have a double reference to the 
end of the Jewish dispensation, and also to the end 
of time. This same double figure is apparent in 
much of the sacred writings and is especially so 
in the statements of Jesus and John, the revela- 
tor. in reference to the judgment scene, given in 
Matthew xxiv and Revelation vi. In both in- 
stances the end of the Jewish age and the end 
of the world in its present state, are referred to, 
and even the clear-headed Adam Clark, and 
others, saw only the former, which many now 
agree includes the latter also. These statements 
in reference to the working of the "exceeding 
great horn" refer to things which will happen in 
the last flying days of time, and also refer to 



136 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

their prototypes which were seen eighteen cen- 
turies ago. "The host of heaven," to which 
this horn "waxed great," were the Jewish priests, 
and some of these "stars" it cast down and 
trampled on. It magnified itself even to the 
prince of the host," that is, it opposed and cru- 
cified Christ, the prince of preachers, and "took 
away the daily sacrifice", that is, destroyed the 
Jewish worship in the destruction of Jerusalem. 
"Cast down the truth to the ground." Christ, 
who is said to be "the Way, the Truth and 
the Life," was asked by a Roman ruler, "What 
is truth?" and though himself its very embodi- 
ment, w T as cast out and crucified by this ruler's 
order. "Practiced and prospered;" surely Rome 
has practiced her wiles on the nations, especialty 
in her ghostly form as a spiritual system, and has 
"prospered" in it. This is the past view, and 
similar incidents on a much broader scale are 
yet to be enacted under the antichrist, which we 
are convinced, will be some kind of a changed 
form of popery; altered so as to satisfy and en- 
snare the wilfully rebellious portion of the Jews 
and much of the Gentile world. In the great 
tribulation of those coming days the host of 
heaven will be cast down and stamped upon, i. e., 
real protestant preachers will be martyred, while 
antichrist magnifies himself even to the prince of 
the host, i. e., claims to be the Messiah, and de- 
mands worship on pain of death. He takes away 
the then restored Jewish daily sacrifice, casts 
truth to the ground and practices and prospers in 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 137 

his diabolical designs, until broken without hands 
at the appearing" of Christ in glory. 

This antichrist is to be the ' 'king of fierce coun- 
tenance and understanding dark sentences*" who 
is said in verse 23 to "'stand up,' in the latter 
time of their (the Jews) kingdom." He was there 
also said to ' 'destroy wonderfully and through 
his policy to cause craft to prosper in the land;" 
all of which is true of the Roman emporors, the 
pope and the antichrist. It is noteworthy that 
this devilish power is not permitted to act "until 
the transgressions are come to the full." God 
has always used fierce and cruel nations and pow- 
ers to correct his recreant people. "The wicked 
are His sword," but He has never used this until 
the transgression of the people call for rectifica- 
tion. It is said of this horn, "His power shall be 
mighty, but not by his own power." The devil 
has always lent his aid to Rome as a nation, or 
as a spiritual system, and will do so finally in the 
setting up of antichrist. 

The fact that this power was to hold sway over 
the earth from the time of the Grecian goat until 
it was destroyed at the revelation of Jesus Christ 
or "broken without hand," shows that no power 
but Rome could be referred to. This little horn 
is said in Chapter vii, verses 21 and 22, to make 
war with the saints and prevail against them un- 
til the Ancient of days came and judgment was 
given to the saints of the Most High. Surely the 
pope has made war with God's people and pre- 
vailed against them, and he will continue to do 



138 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

so, secretly in the present form of popery, but 
openly and fearfully in its future and final form 
under the antichrist until the final judgment. 
The angel said to the prophet, "for at the time 
of the end shall be the vision;" meaning that at 
the end of time the bulk of the vision would 
come to pass, though at the end of the Jewish 
dispensation it had a partial fulfillment. We 
are living now in this "time of the end," and 
prophecy is running into history. The Roman 
horn is soon to be broken without hand, and God's 
everlasting kingdom set up on the purified earth. 
Looked at, even from the other point of view, 
which make these passages point to Antiochus 
Epyphanes, the Syrian- Greek sovereign, who 
ruled the Syrian portion of Alexander's empire 
for a short period and made such a bloody and 
blasphemous record, our application of these 
passages would be in perfect accord therewith in 
finally making them apply to the antichrist, who 
was evidently foreshadowed by Antiochus. 

One point that is especially noteworthy before 
leaving this subject is the mode by which this in- 
sidious power is to gain the notoriety and in- 
fluence here spoken of. And this point is true 
whether the passages be made to fit Romanism, 
Antiochus, or Antichrist, or all of them, as they 
were evidently intended to describe. The woes 
that were caused by popery and Antiochus, and 
are yet to be caused by the antichrist, proceed 
from the pit and are all inspired by the devil; but 
they never could have been inflicted on the people 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 139 

of the earth, either Jew or Gentle, without God's 
permission. This permission would never have 
been granted had His people not rejected His coun- 
sels and mercies and thrown off His sovereignty. 
As the Jews made great concessions to Antiochus, 
who brought in a flood of Gentile gymnastics and 
Greek philosophy, until the religion of the Jews 
was lost amid the Olympian games and heathen 
ideas; so the early church made concessions 
to popery until the primitive Christianity of 
the Bible is almost lost amid loud-sounding 
popish rites, and the much lauded, but often 
falsely so-called sciences. The pompous and im- 
posing religious rites and the deified intellectual 
greatness of to-day, are the deepening shadows 
which the coming antichrist projects before him. 
Oh, what a harvest of woe is this world prepar- 
ing for itself ? The baptized infidelity which 
passes in our religious schools for "higher criti- 
cism," denotes the self-sufficient and God-def3^ing 
spirit which is rapidly enthroning Christ's great 
opposer. Empty, though loud-sounding, relig- 
ious rites; showy, though godless, reform sys- 
tems; our swollen intellectual pomp, and the 
desire for "the sovereignty of the people," are 
the steps up which Antichrist acsends to the 
bloody and blasphemous seat from which he is to 
be hurled into the lake of fire at the appearing, 
and by the power of, the Son of God. 

Since Jesus will come in the aerial heavens 
to receive His ready bride, or purified followers, 
before all this happens, He exhorts his people to 



140 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

be ready and watch for his coming, which He 
says will take place at an "hour when ye think 
not." "Let your loins be girt about and your 
lamps trimmed and burning", and ye yourselves 
like unto men who wait for their Lord." And 
he continues: "Blessed are those servants, 
whom their Lord, when he cometh, shall find 
watching." 



CHAPTER X. 

We now come to consider the seventy weeks of 
Daniel's vision as given in chapter nine of his 
book. Though Daniel was a great statesman, no 
less famed for his piety than his faithfulness 
in the affairs of state, he could find time for 
prayer, and not for prayer only, but for a study 
of the prophecies also, which even some theolog- 
ians are averse to doing to-day. If we had a few 
more such national officials in our day, our na- 
tional affairs would not be in the snarled and un- 
satisfactory condition which they are. In answer 
to his fervent prayer for his people the angel 
gave him the following glimpse of their future. 
In the exposition of this vision we purpose to 
entirely ignore the mountains of self-contradict- 
ory comments on the passages in question, and 
give our humble view of the divine meaning, 
which we are not alone in thinking is the only 
consistent one. The angel declares "Seventy 
weeks are determined upon Thy People and upon 
Thy Holy City to finish the (their) transgression 
and to make on end of sins, and to bring in ever- 
lasting righteousness, * * * and anoint the 
most holy." We must bear in mind that the 



142 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

angel is here speaking of Daniel's people alone. 
The prophecy refers to the Jews exclusively, and 
that, too, only in connection with their holy city, 
Jerusalem, and their national existence. The 
Gentiles and the Christian church is not referred 
to in all the vision. Our word "week" is simply 
an appellation for a period of time. Here the 
word "week," as nearly all agree, refers to seven 
years, as our word refers to seven days. Seventy 
weeks then, or four hundred and ninety years, is 
the full allotted time of the Jews as a people 
in connection with their holy city, Jerusalem, 
and their national existence, at the expiration of 
which, everlasting righteousness shall be brought 
in, and the most holy anointed, that is, the judg- 
ment set. The angel continues thus: "Know, 
therefore and understand, that from the going 
forth of the commandment to restore and to 
rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah, the prince, shall 
be seven weeks and three score and two weeks, 
the street shall be built again and the wall, even 
in troublous times. " Our readers will notice that 
though seventy weeks were to elapse before 
there would be an end made of sins and an end of 
the prophet's people as a nation, and the most 
holy anointed and everlasting righteousness, or 
the judgment brought in, that only sixty-nine 
weeks are accounted for, in the seven weeks and 
three score and two weeks. There is a final week 
yet to be accounted for, the last of the seventy, 
before everlasting righteousness can be brought 
in. Counting backward three score and two 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 143 

weeks and seven weeks, which is sixty-nine 
weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years, 
from Christ's triumphant ride into Jerusalem, 
when for the first time he declared himself to be 
the king of the Jews; when, as never before, the 
prophecy was fulfilled to Zion, "Behold thy king 
cometh sitting upon a colt, the foal of an ass," 
and we come to the very year that Nehemiah was 
commissioned by Ahasuerus to rebuild the temple 
and the walls of Jerusalem, and restore the na- 
tional worship. This was in the twentieth year 
of Artaxerxes. — Nehemiah, chapter 2, verse 1. 
This rebuilding was done in troublous times, 
surely. Read account as given by Nehemiah, the 
prophet. After this, Messiah was to be "cut off, 
but not for himself," so said the angel. Christ was 
crucified a few days after his triumphal entry 
into Jerusalem, and "Not for Himself," but for 
the sin, and by the sin of others. And, continues 
the angel: "The people of the prince that 
shall come, shall destroy the city and the 
sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with 
a flood and unto the end of the war, desola- 
tions are determined." These words were liter- 
ally fulfilled by the Romans in the fearful de- 
struction of Jerusalem, but they are to have a 
broader and more marked fulfillment under the 
antichrist that shall rule the Jewish nation dur- 
ing the last week of these seventy weeks, when 
for seven years they will have a national exist- 
ence, and be governed by a prince that shall be 
covenanted with — read verse twenty-seven. 



144 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

The Jews, by cutting* off their Messiah, thereby 
cut themselves off from being His people and un- 
intentionally on their part inaugurated, in its 
strictest sense, "the times of the Gentiles;" 
though in its broadest sense these words may 
cover all that period of time between the setting 
up of Babylon as a universal power and the com- 
ing kingdom of God; the period during which 
Jewish independence was largely defunct. * In 
the light in which Daniel was shown the fate of 
his people, the Jews have no history now, nor 
have they had any since the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, which was about seven weeks or forty-nine 
years after Christ's triumphal entrance into the 
city and His crucifixion a few days later. They 
cut themselves off from being God's people, by 
cutting off their prince; and they are therefore 
not noticed in the vision through all the long 
years of their present dispersion, which is espec- 
ially called "the times of the Gentiles." But the 
Jews are again to have a national existence for 
one week, (seven years), as verse twenty-seven 
shows. They are not nationally recognized now 
by God as His people and are consequently not 



* Any one desiring to see a thorough and scholarly exposition of 
chronological prophecy, in which "the times of the Gentiles," viewed from 
its more figurative standpoint of three hundred and sixty years, or a year 
of years to a day, let him read a work entitled, "Light for the Last Days," 
written by Mr. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness, printed at London. Though 
these writers discuss the words, "The times of the Gentiles" and "the time 
of the end," from altogether different points of view and on widely differ- 
ent principles of interpretation from myself, yet almost exactly the same 
results are arrived at, and the end of this dispensation proven to be at 
hand; so self -consistent, many-sided and capable of demonstration is this 
mighty truth. 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 145 

recognized at present as being in the vision. But 
the last week of the seventy is to be theirs as a 
distinct nationality. This will be at the close of 
the present "times of the Gentiles. A certain 
prince is to confirm a covenant with the Jews for 
one week, or seven years. 

The three score and two weeks spoken of by 
the angel led up to Christ's triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem and his crucifixion a few days later. 
The seven weeks, or second section in the sev- 
enty weeks, led up to the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, when the Jews lost their national existence. 
There remains one week still unaccounted for, 
and this final week must be found in connection 
with Israel as a nation. This is to be the entire 
length of their national reign after the restora- 
tion. At its end the Most Holy is to be anointed, 
everlasting righteousness brought in, and an end 
made to sins; or, in other words, Christ is to 
return in judgment. The first three and a half 
years of this period will be years of unprece- 
dented success for the Jews in their own land. 
The success and renown of those who first go 
back will prove a magnet to draw the rest, until 
with the wealth of almost the entire world in 
their hands, this nomadic people flock to the 
"Pleasant Land." But in the midst of the week, 
or three and a half years after the re-establish- 
ment of the Jewish empire, the prince, whom 
they will have been lauding, will throw off his 
sheep-skin and appear in his true character, as 
the wolf of the evening of time, "The abomina- 



146 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

tion that maketh desolate shall stand in the holy 
place," even until the consummation of all things, 
when he will be destroyed by the brightness of 
Christ's coming. He is said to "remove" or abol- 
ish the Jewish "daily sacrifice" that will then 
have been restored, and to establish the worship 
of his own person in its place as the abomination 
that maketh desolate. — Daniel xi, 31; viii, 11; 
xii, 11. What a fearful and inspiring thought is 
here presented. 

If this view be correct, and it is the only nat- 
ural and self-consistent one, how fraught with in- 
terest to the world is it. Surely, through their 
fall salvation is come to the Gentiles." Jerusa- 
lem, which it was said would "be trodden down 
of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles 
should be fulfilled," is about to be purged of its 
Turkish Gentile foe, and again be inhabited and 
ruled by its original Abrahamic citizens. God 
help us to find peace with him ere that time 
comes, for it is only at the close of the period 
of Gentile salvation that this occurs. Think of 
God's spirit being withdrawn from this earth and 
salvation offered to the nations no longer, and 
that for the space of seven years. Oh, what a 
hell this earth will become when that dread time 
arrives. It is called "A time of tribulation such 
as was not since there was a nation to this day; 
no, nor ever shall be." Thank God it is to be of 
short duration when it does come. "Except this 
time had been shortened there should no flesh 
escape, but for the elect's sake the time shall be 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 147 

shortened" to three and a half, or at most, seven 
years, the last half of the week when antichrist 
reigns. Universal and terrible wars with all 
their concomitant train of blood and terror must 
soon take place, and all nations are seen to be 
preparing" for them. Sinner friend, if you have 
not entered the ark of the covenant and found 
peace and rest, I entreat you to do so at once, for 
"the time is short, the judge is at the door;" the 
"end is at hand./ 

What an awful place this world is now, even 
with God's blessed spirit striving* with every 
man, and heaven's guardian angels passing in 
and out among us, ministering to those who 
are heirs of salvation. But what a fearful place 
this world will become when the "times of the 
Gentiles is fulfilled," and God's spirit leaves man 
to his idols. We fear that every humane, be- 
nevolent, noble, and Christ-like feeling will 
soon vanish from the unsaved breast. As man 
is totally depraved, when God's spirit, that is 
now the cause of all righteous feelings and act- 
ions on the part of the unsaved is withdrawn, 
their depravity will have no check. Hell itself 
would almost be a place of refuge in comparison 
to earth at that time. In the momentous time 
when the spirit of God thus leaves man to his 
idols, every mean passion and every murderous 
desire may be expected to soon seize him and 
reign unrestrained. 

The once tender-hearted lady may see brutality 
and bloodshed at every turn, and instead of the 



148 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

feelings of sympathy and tenderness which were 
wont to stir her heart, she may gloat over it and 
greedily plunge into the vilest of pleasures. 
Those who once professed religion may be scoffed 
at and made the tools and playthings of their 
merciless and fiendish tormentors, whose diabol- 
ical laugh will swell with every groan of agony. 
Earth turned into an inferno will almost reel, 
groan and crumble beneath the weight of its own 
wickedness, which will call loudly to heaven for 
retribution. All this, dear reader, is embodied in 
the words, ' 'The times of the Gentiles fulfilled." 
And it is clear to spiritual vision even now that 
this state of affairs, considered apart from 
the Bible, is not far off, from the very callousing 
of the conscience and the hardening of the heart, 
the vulgarity and brutality that are becoming so 
prevalent, as God's Word and Spirit are being re- 
jected. Then shall that awful verse of Scripture 
have its application, "He that is unjust let him 
be unjust still, and he that is filthy let him be 
filthy still, and he that is righteous let him be 
righteous still, and he that is holy let him be holy 
still." 

Even now is God's Spirit being rapidly grieved 
from the earth, and it is noticeable that it takes 
more earnest weeping and groaning before God, 
more desperate struggles of faith and more heart- 
felt pleadings to bring souls to the light and con- 
sciousness of their acceptance at His hands than 
it did only a few years since. Oh, that many 
would yield at once before His Spirit is entirely 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 149 

withdrawn, for He has declared, "My Spirit 
shall not always strive with man." In this con- 
nection we think it best to give, in the following- 
chapter, a condensed account of Christ's coming 
in the air to receive His blood-washed followers. 



CHAPTER XL 

That there is a vast difference between Christ 
coming in the aeriel heavens to call His ready 
bride to Himself, and His revelation to all at the 
beginning of the millennium, some have over- 
looked, and consequently made sad work of ex- 
posing some portions of Scripture. When He 
comes in the air to receive His own, it will be as 
a thief in the night, "in such an hour as ye think 
not." As shown in John xiv, 3, He comes for His 
saints. As shown in I Thess. iii, 13, He comes 
with His saints to bind Satan, purify the earth 
and inaugurate the millennium. But it will be 
seen by all that He must come for His saints, 
before He can come with them. As one has said, 
"At the rapture He comes only to meet the saints 
in the air." — I Thessalonians iv, 17. "At the rev- 
elation He comes to the earth." — Acts i, 11. "At 
the rapture the church, like Enoch, is taken out 
of the world." — Acts xv, 14. "At the revelation 
the millennial kingdom is begun." — Acts xv, 
15-17. That this "being caught up to meet Him 
in the air and so be forever with the Lord," is to 
take place at the beginning of the tribulation, 
none can deny. It is written: "When ye see 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 151 

these things begin to come to pass then look up, 
and lift up your heads, for your redemption 
draweth nigh. " Again, it is written: ' 'Watch ye, 
therefore, and pray always, that ye may be ac- 
counted worthy to escape all these things that 
shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son 
of Man." And to his faithful ones He has de- 
clared, 4 'Because thou hast kept the word of my 
patience I also will keep thee from the hour of 
temptation that shall come upon all the world, 
to try them that dwell upon the earth." Here 
He has promised deliverance to all his faithful 
ones from the hour of great tribulation that is 
coming upon the earth. They will need, how- 
ever, "the patience of the saints" to keep them 
true even in the beginning of sorrows before He 
comes. He will come unexpectedly, as shadowed 
forth by the parable of the ten virgins, when He 
comes for his own, and this may occur at any 
moment, see Matthew xxiv, 42. But He cannot 
come to usher in the millennium until several 
historic events take place, such as Israel's resto- 
ration, Antichrist's enthronement, etc. But all 
the signs of the times testify that these events 
are about to take place. Awful will it be for 
this world when God leaves man to his idols, 
and in the twinkling of an eye all the right- 
eous dead will be resurrected and all the right- 
eous ones living on the earth will be mysteri- 
ously changed and caught up to meet their Lord 
in the air. "Then shall two be in the field, the 
one shall be taken and the other left; two women 



152 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be 
taken and the other left," and this may be looked 
for at any hour. Many a man shall miss his 
righteous, though persecuted, wife from his side 
in the twinkling of an eye, and wonder at her 
mysterious departure. Many a proud church- 
member will miss her faithful, though little re- 
spected, servant, and wonder at her prolong-ed 
absence. Many a godless preacher will miss the 
noisy, shouting members, that have bored him by 
their bursts of praise. Many a child will miss 
a fond parent whom he would give all the world 
to meet again. Many a business man will miss 
his faithful clerk and wonder at his mysterious 
absence, as the books and cash will all be right. 
Think of the sorrow, the despair, the searching 
for departed loved ones in that hour, as Elisha's 
prophetic students sought for their master at his 
ascension, but all in vain. Oh, what remorse, 
what self-condemnation, what anguish, will be 
felt when the truth begins to dawn upon them. 
This will be a calamity in itself, such as the 
world has never seen, but it will only be one of a 
series of awful and devastating calamities. 
Think of engineers being caught up from their 
post of duty on the flying express train; switch- 
men caught up from important switch -towers, 
and captains and pilots caught up from their 
ships as they plow the ocean, and motormen 
caught up from moving street cars; doctors caught 
up from the bedside of sufferers, and of the ca- 
lamities which must necessarily follow. When 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 153 

those Christian statesmen are taken away, whose 
piety have been the buttress of the wall of right- 
eousness, what avalanches of wickedness will 
precipitate themselves upon the world. Think 
of the misfortunes, as well as the disappoint- 
ments that must attend thousands of such cases. 
Surely, the wail of Egypt for her first born will 
be outdone in that awful hour. And this mighty 
occurrence is an imminent one. It may take 
place, dear reader, ere you lay this book down, or 
before the morning dawns. Are you ready? Oh^ 
heed the divine warning, and "be ye also ready, 
for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of 
Man cometh!" This awful fact should stop the 
backslidings and break up the lukewarmness of 
all. "What I say unto you, I say unto all, 
watch." In the light of these truths, let none be 
be so foolhardy as to assert that the study of 
prophecy and the second advent is of no practical 
value. There are few subjects in scripture of 
more vast importance to the human race. 

The beastly power which is to antagonize the 
work of God at Christ's second coming is de- 
scribed in Revelation xiii, 1-10, and that this 
beast is Romanism in its changed form, and the 
real antichrist, Apollyon, or false prophet, is 
seen by Revelation xix, 20, where his satanic 
miracles are in plain words attributed to the 
false prophet. Furthermore, that this beast is 
the same as the fourth beast of Daniel's vision, is 
seen from the following facts: Daniel saw the 
four great universal kingdoms, Babylon, Persia, 



154 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Greece and Rome, represented by four beasts, 
namely, a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a terrible 
nondescript beast with ten horns. At the time 
of John's vision Babylon, Persia and Greece had 
passed off the stage of action, and hence none 
but Rome, or the horned beast, which represented 
her, remained to be described. It appeared to 
John in such a manner, however, as to prove 
itself the possessor of the power and territory of 
the first three, for it had the body of the leopard, 
the feet of the bear, and the mouth of the lion, 
while its seven heads, its ten horns, and its name 
of blasphemy proved its identity as the beast 
which represented Rome. The little horn of 
Daniel's beast was to "speak great words against 
the most high." — Daniel vii, 25. This beast is 
said to "open his mouth in blasphemy against 
God." The little horn was said to make war with 
the saints and prevail against them." — Daniel 
vii, 21. This beast is said to "make war with 
the saints and overcome them." The little horn 
had a "mouth that spake very great things," — 
Daniel vii, 8-20. This beast had "a mouth 
speaking great things and blasphemy." Again, 
it was said of Daniel's beast, its power was to 
last "until a time, times and the dividing of time," 
or three and one-half years." — Daniel vii, 25. 
The power of this beast was to "continue forty 
and two months," which is just three and one-half 
years. 

The two-horned beast, or false prophet, (which 
is significantly said to "rise out of the earth, 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 155 

and exercise all the power of the first beast be- 
fore him, and make an image to the first beast, 
which all must worship,") is the personal anti- 
christ. The image he makes to the great non- 
descript beast of popery may be the union of 
church and state under himself, as it had been 
under the pope in the dark ages. This antichrist 
is represented in Revelation xiii, 11, as appear- 
ing like a lamb, yet speaking like a dragon, and 
as God hath said, "out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh," his words prove 
this creature to be a dragon-hearted monster in 
spite of his lamb-like pretensions. This wolf in 
sheep's clothing, or lamb-dragon, is said, in Rev- 
elation xiii, 13, to do great wonders and "make 
fire come down from heaven on the earth in the 
sight of men, and deceive them that dwell on the 
earth by means of these miracles which he had 
power to do." As Elijah proved his divine com- 
mission by this very sign, and thereby claimed 
the right to purge the nation of its false prophets 
and Baal worshipers, so this lamb-dragon, anti- 
christ, through the power of the devil will de- 
ceive many into acceptance of his blasphemous 
claims, by this very means, and then begin the 
bloody task of exterminating, as false worship- 
ers, all those faithful ones who resist his power 
and claims. Well has the apostle inserted in 
this connection, "here is the patience of the 
saints." The spirit of God being then largely 
grieved from the earth, these satanic and bloody 
persecutions will seem only natural and right 



156 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

to the deceived multitudes, who will be given 
over to believe a lie, and will have almost their 
entire endorsement. 

Between this bloody persecution or great tribu- 
lation; which lasts three and a half years under 
antichrist, and the final end when Christ appears, 
the most awful and momentous occurrences of 
earth will take place in the casting" away and 
punishing of the degenerate church. The Ephe- 
sian church, representing the apostolic age of 
Christianity, has passed away. The different 
phases of the church during the almost total 
eclipse of Christianity in the dark ages repre- 
sented by the Smyrna, Pergamos, and Thyatira 
churches, have gone by. The closing up of the 
papal persecution in the sixteenth century, when 
only a few martyrs constituted the real church, 
represented as the "Sardis" age, which had only 
a few names who were "worthy" to walk with 
Christ in ' 'white,'' is also passed away. The 
age of "Brotherly Love," during the revivals of 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries under 
the reformers and their followers, represented by 
the Philadelphian church, is also gone by, and 
we are living in the last age of the church which 
God has prefigured under a description of the 
Laodicean church. Let any unprejudiced and 
spiritual scholar who will read the second and 
third chapters of Revelation and look over the 
various shades of meaning in the original names 
of those seven churches, and the various charac- 
ters ascribed to them, and he will be convinced 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 157 

that they were not only intended to describe, en- 
courage and warn the seven obscure Asiatic 
churches, whose name they bear, but were also 
intended to describe, encourage and warn the 
church of God as a whole in the seven periods of 
her existence. This last age, or Laodicean 
church, if God's word be true, is to be "spewed 
out of his mouth," because she is "lukewarm 
and neither cold nor hot,'' and because she says 
she is "rich and increased in goods and has 
need of nothing, and knoweth not that she is 
wretched and miserable and blind and naked." 
Surely, this is a fearful, though, just description 
of a large portion of the professed church of our 
day. "Lukewarm," endeavoring to please both 
Christ and Antichrist, God and Mammon. Boast- 
ing of her riches, her education, her intelligence, 
her orators, her magnificent cathedrals, colleges, 
and pomp, while really in God's sight she is 
"wretched and miserable and blind." Who, in 
this age of Christianity, can tell how "blind" to 
God and spiritual things a large portion of the 
professed church really is? or, how "naked" of 
saving power and divine unction, and conse- 
quently how "wretched and miserable?" God 
help us! He is about to spew this fashionable 
and formal church out of his mouth, as he 
did the church of the Old Testament, for through 
unsanctified and impious connection with the 
world she has become as largely prostituted to 
Babylonish ends, as was her elder sister, the 
Jewish church, at Christ's first appearing. Be- 



158 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

cause that instead of having converted the world 
to Christ by her faithfulness, she has left it in 
darkness by her fall, she is called "the mother of 
harlots and the abominations of the earth." This 
statement is as true as it is terrible. All the 
abominations of the earth would ere this have 
been abolished had the Christian church, as a 
w T hole, been true to her divine appointment. But 
since her unfaithfulness is the cause of the exist- 
ence of these abominations, she is called the 
"Mother" of them. When God spews this luke- 
warm church, or Babylonian harlot, out of his 
mouth, it will be said, "How T much she hath glori- 
fied herself and lived deliciously, so mudh tor- 
ment and sorrow give her. " 

It is plainly stated in the word of God that in 
the last days many would be given over to believe 
a lie that they might be damned, because they 
had pleasure in unrighteousness. Surely, the 
trend of things to-day shows that many are thus 
being given over. The church in many of its 
protestant branches, as well as the papal branch, 
is even now seen to be doing homage to the anti- 
christian principles of the day, and will continue to 
do so until Antichrist himself appears and is cast 
down at the appearing of her insulted and be- 
trayed Lord. Oh, dear reader, do not grow im- 
patient with me ; do not give way to blind fury or 
prejudice and say, "Christ will never cast off or 
punish his unfaithful servant, the church." Did 
he not do it to the Jews? When they sinned, did 
he not both punish and cast off those who had 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 159 

been his special people for a period of equal 
length with the Christian era? From Abraham 
to Christ, or the entire age of the Jewish church, 
was about 1,900 years. God then cast them off 
because of their sins, and will we, as Christians, 
force him to deal as disastrously with us? Is the 
age of the Christian church to be no greater than 
its departed Judean sister? Oh, bear with me a 
little in my folly, if you deem me a fool, and read 
the divine word on this subject before the wrath 
of an insulted God be poured out upon a Christ- 
rejecting world. Good would it be for the church 
in general if she would but heed the divine warn- 
ing to the Laodiceans and ' 'buy of him gold tried 
in the fire, that she may be rich, and white rai- 
ment that she may be clothed, and eye-salve that 
she may see." Dear reader, believe me, my heart 
is stirred with love for Christ's church, and like 
Paul, "I could wish myself accursed from Christ 
for my brethren," in their delusion, should it do 
them any good? Can you not see that even now 
the lines are fast widening between those who 
really serve Christ and those who serve him not; 
between those who merely profess and those who 
possess his grace? These lines are destined to 
be much more distinct ere long between those 
who keep the Spirit and those who trust in the 
form without the power. Oh, reader, I ask you 
as I have repeatedly asked my own soul while 
writing, will you be ready to meet Him? 

In God's minute description of Romanism in its 
various phases as given in Revelation xvii, He 



160 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

has presented a few facts that are worthy of our 
consideration. The woman there referred to, the 
angel declared to be "that great city that reign - 
eth over the kings of the earth." He declared 
that she "sat upon a scarlet colored beast." 
This woman typified the church of Rome, and the 
beast she rode upon typified the civil power on 
which she always relied for support. Purple and 
scarlet have always been the special colors for 
the robes and trappings of the emperors, popes, 
cardinals, etc.; even the mules on which they 
rode must be covered with scarlet cloth, as if 
they were bent on literally fulfilling the prophecy, 
and riding a scarlet colored beast, indeed. The 
gold and precious stones she is said to be decked 
with have alwaj^s formed a part of the Roman 
regalia. The expiring groans of 55,000,000 of 
protestant martyrs testify that she has, indeed, 
as here declared, been "drunken with the blood 
of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus." "And," continues the angel, "I will tell 
the mystery of the woman and of the beast that 
carrieth her which hath seven heads and ten 
horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is 
not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, 
and go into perdition, and they that dwell on the 
earth shall wonder, whose names are not written 
in the book of life, when they behold the beast 
that was, and is not, and yet is. " This beast is the 
civil power in the hands of the church at its bloody 
work, as in the days of the inquisition. It was 
bloody and beastly then, but ceased to be so since 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 161 

the reformation, and yet will again manifest the 
same bloody and persecuting- spirit in the last 
days under the Antichrist. Thus it was in the 
dark ages, and is not in our day, and shall ascend 
out of the bottomless pit in the last days and go 
into perdition. 

This same truth is told in another place under 
the figure of a beast wounded unto death, and 
afterward healed of its deadly wound. It is 
written here that all the world, whose names 
were not written in the book of life, ' 'wondered 
on beholding the beast that was, and is not, and 
yet is." This means simply that the unsaved 
who have never believed that the persecuting 
spirit of the dark ages could ever again show its 
dark face on earth, will be surprised, astonished, 
and "wonder" to see its resurrected reign of 
terror. "The seven heads are seven mountains 
on which the woman sitteth," continues the 
prophet. This described the seven hills on which 
the city of Rome is built, and the seven sacra- 
ments which form the base of the christless 
system of popery. "And there are seven kings, 
five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet 
come, and the beast that was, and is not, even he 
is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into 
perdition, verses ten and eleven. The word 
"kings," here means forms of government. At 
the time John was writing there had been just six 
forms of government in Rome. Five of these 
had passed away, and the sixth then ruled. The 
early kings, councils, decemvirs, dictators and 



162 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

military tribunes were all gone and the emperors 
held sway. The one that was not yet come in 
John's day, and the only form of government 
which has ruled Rome since the emperors lost their 
power, has been the ghostly and tyrannous sys- 
tem of popery. "The beast that was, and is not, 
even he is the eighth, and is of the seventh, and 
goeth into perdition, " it is written. This shows 
that the antichristian, persecuting, beastly power 
that "shall continue for a short space" at the 
last time, is not only to be the last ruler of Rome, 
and to go into perdition, but it also shows that 
the antichrist and the pope are to be one in 
spirit, by the statement that though he is said to 
be the eighth ruling head, he is also declared 
to be "of the seven." That will be an awful day, 
when, as it is written, this tyrannous, beastly, 
eighth ruler of the machinery of Rome "goeth 
into perdition." Whether the ten horns that were 
described as being ten kings that had not yet re- 
ceived a kingdom in John's day, and would be 
of one mind and lend their power and strength 
unto the beast and make war with the Lamb, re- 
fers to the ten persecuting Catholic kingdoms 
into which imperial Rome dissolved, or ten na- 
tions that shall yet arise amid the wars and re- 
constructions of the last days on the same sites, 
and especially oppose the rule of heaven, we can 
not positively assert. The words are true in their 
past sense, and we fear they shall have a more 
awful meaning in the future, until the woman 
herself is "burned with fire." 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 163 

Moses, in the book of Genesis, tells us that God 
created the earth in six days and rested the 
seventh day from all His works and peculiarly 
blessed it as the day of His rest. Peter, the 
apostle, under divine inspiration asserts that "a 
thousand years shall be as a day and a day as a 
thousand years." His meaning - is this, God made 
the natural world, which is but a fleeting shadow 
of the more enduring spiritual world, in six days, 
and rested the seventh day; so, He also makes 
the spiritual world in six days, and rests the 
seventh day. Each day in which God labors in 
creating the spiritual world is a thousand years 
in duration, measured by the scale of this world, 
and a thousand years of this world's estimate 
shall be as a day in the spiritual realm. We 
know that, spiritually speaking, God does not rest 
now, nor has he ever done so, either on the Jewish 
or Christian Sabbaths, or any other day. These 
are the days in which God is "laboring" to bring* 
men to himself. Jesus said: "My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work." But his great day of rest, 
typified by all the Jewish and Christian Sab- 
baths, is near. The seventh thousand year day, 
the Lord's millennial Sabbath, wherein he shall 
rest with all his labors, his spiritual creation 
finished, is at hand. We are living* in the Satur- 
day evening of this- world's history. It is five 
thousand nine hundred and ninety odd years 
since the birthday of creation, if the inspired 
writers are correct. The popular chronology is 
proven defective in one particular, it places 



164 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Christ's birth at the year 4004 in the world's 
age, but late research has discovered that Mr. 
Usher, the chronologist, made a mistake of 100 
years in the time of the Judges. He makes that 
period cover a space of but 350 years, while Paul 
asserts in Acts xiii, 20, that it covered 450 years. 
Christ then, was really born about 4104 of the 
world's history. The Christian era, as all con- 
cede, antedates the birth of Christ two or three 
years. Add the length of the Christian dispensa- 
tion to the four thousand one hundred and four 
years which preceded it, and it will be seen that 
the six one thousand year days are nearly done, 
that this world is over 5,990 years old. The twi- 
light of time is settling over the earth, and it is 
about to be blessed with its long-looked for millen- 
nial Sabbath of a 1,000 years of the personal reign 
of Christ, after which all things will be given to 
the Father, "that he may be all in all." Read I 
Corinthians xv, 28. All orthodox Christians, es- 
pecially believers in the premillennial doctrine, 
expect that the kingdom of Christ is to come upon 
the earth and exist under his personal reign for 
1,000 years. Then will the government be upon 
his shoulders, as predicted by the prophet. This 
is to be an everlasting kingdom, it is written, 
and the kingdom is never to be given to another 
people. Thank God for this promise. The one 
thousand years' millennium is but the first sec- 
tion of a never ending reign of the Almighty 
over his redeemed children. Then "the meek 
shall inherit the earth." Then Christ shall sit 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 165 

upon the throne of his glory, and around him his 
apostles ' 'shall sit upon thrones judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel; and again, it is written 
that "the saints shall judge the world;" and 
again, Paul declared to the Corinthians, "Know 
3^e not that ye shall judge angels?" It will be 
said by Christ in that day to those who through 
obedience to his commands developed their tal- 
ents, as they now present them to him with 
the increase thereof, "Have thou authority 
over ten cities;" "Be thou also over five cities." 
Those who have suffered with him he has 
declared shall also reign with him on the 
earth which he has redeemed. Then shall the 
earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as 
the waters cover the sea. During this reign of 
Christ on the throne of his father David, the 
devil will not deceive the nations, for he will be 
shut up and chained until the thousand years be 
ended. It is stated of those w T ho shall live 
through the time of great tribulation, all nations 
shall worship him at Jerusalem, meaning, of 
course, the New Jerusalem which cometh down 
from God out of heaven. Read description in Rev- 
elation xxi. "And it shall come to pass that from 
one new moon to another, and from one Sab- 
bath to another, shall all flesh come to worship, 
before me, saith the Lord." Again, it is written, 
"many people shall say, come ye and let us go 
up the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the 
God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his wavs, 
and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion 



166 THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord 
from Jerusalem. * * * And they shall beat 
their swords into plowshares and their spears 
into pruning hooks, neither shall they learn war 
any more.*' After the expiration of this thousand 
3 r ears of bliss, it is stated that Satan must be 
loosed again for a little season. This is just 
prior to the general judgment, when the wicked 
shall receive their final punishment and the just 
their final reward, and ''all things are given over 
to the Father, even the Son, that he (the Father) 
may be all in all. Christ's work of redemption 
then completed will be presented to his Father, 
and, "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard," for God 
has not seen fit to reveal the glories which are to 
be enjoyed in his new heaven and new earth. 
We consider that the exact fulfillment of the 
prophecies herein discussed, proves that either the 
authors were inspired, or else possessed of a 
power of calculation more marvelous and miracu- 
lous than inspiration itself, and we trust that they 
w T ill accomplish their intended end by awakening 
the careless multitudes from their indifference, 
that they may be prepared to meet him with joy 
at his speedy reappearing. 

'Now unto Him that is able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless before the 
presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the 
only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, 
dominion and power, both now and forever. 
Amen!" 



LIFE AND LABORS 



O.F ; 



KEV. VIVIAN A. DAKE 

By THOMAS H. ^NTEXSOJV, Evangelist. 

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A GOSPEL EVANGELIST. 

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508 pages, Bound in Cloth and Gilt. Price Re- 
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Pentecost Band Pub. Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 

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An Eight Page Semi-Monthly, Devoted to 

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Fresh, Spicy, and Full of Red-Hot Truth. 

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